Love Will Remember
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Things have changed a lot in Dom's life since he last saw Letty. Dotty.
1. Chapter 1

_So this is my other new story! This was inspired by Selena Gomez's song_ 'Love Will Remember'. _I'm usually not a fan of her stuff, but I'm absolutely in love with this song, and there's a couple of covers on YouTube that are amazing as well. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the first chapter!_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters your recognize_

It had been a long day.

Shit, in all honesty, it had been a long eight months.

Dominic Toretto couldn't remember the last time he hadn't been woken before five in the morning. And he was lucky if that was all that broke his sleep—there were some nights when two or three o'clock would roll around and he would be pulled from his bed, blindly stumbling down the hallway.

He would have thought that the lack of sleep would mean that when he actually did manage to sleep, it would be deep and dreamless.

But it seemed to be the complete opposite.

Some nights it was his father, and the crash at the race track. The car bouncing against the concrete sides and then tumbling in what seemed like slow motion across the track and into the path of the other racers.

Other nights, they were about his mother. She had only passed two years ago, but she might as well have died on the track with her husband. After Carlos Toretto died, she hd sunk into a depression that she had never fully recovered from. Despite being loving and kind, she was only a shadow of the woman she was before. She passed peacefully in her sleep, and Dom and his younger sister concluded that it was for the best.

And then there was Leticia Carmen Hadley Ortiz.

Both his worst _and_ best dreams.

* * *

 _"You cannot be fucking serious right now!" Letty shouted across at him. The wind was whipping up a storm, tangling in front of her face and sticking to her pouting mouth. Dom grinned across at her, shaking his head as he looked back over the cliff. It was probably just under fifty meters down into the glistening blue water, the sun bouncing off the rippling waves below them._

 _"I jump, you jump," he chanted and Letty rolled her eyes, swiping at her hair._

 _"We're not in the fucking Titanic. And don't put those thoughts in my head—they all died, remember?!" Letty shouted over the loud wind._

 _"Maybe we should make out one last time then, just in case," Dom grinned at her and took a step in her direction but she gave him a narrow eyed, playful look and backed away._

 _"See ya!" She sung out as she pushed her feet off the grassy cliff and began plummeting toward the ocean. He could hear her screams before they were drowned out as she hit the ocean and sunk beneath the surface. The shouts and laughs of their friends wafted up to him and Dom squinted down to determine that the water was clear before he jumped after her. The wind rushed by his ears before his feet pierced the cold water and he was surrounded by a flurry of bubbles. When he broke the surface, Letty was paddling over to him._

 _"Let's do that again," Letty announced and Vince Martin laughed at her enthusiasm._

 _"It took us years to get Mia to throw her ass off there, and even after doing it a first time, she didn't want to do it again," Vince told her, pumping his legs to stay afloat._

 _"Eh," Letty snorted as she reached Dom. She wound her arms around his neck and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before turning and starting to swim toward the rocks at the base of the cliff face. "If you pussy's can do it, then I can do it better!" Dom exchanged grins with Vince and Leon Eppes, before swimming after her and catching up easily, his long arms pulling him through the water. She reached the rocks and began to scramble up the wet and uneven surface. Dom helped her out, bracing both hands under her ass and pushing her up. "Anything for a grope, aye, man?" She shot over as she walked toward the grassy bank._

 _"Fuck, yeah," Dom admitted, completely unashamed. He pulled himself out of the water and followed after his seventeen year old girlfriend. She didn't think twice about leading the way up the muddy path that wound up the side of the cliff, beaten down from the hundreds of people who had tracked up there previously. Dom couldn't help but look up every few seconds to look over her bikini clad ass that was swaying in front of him. She reached the top and swiped her dirty palms on the grass before straightening taking a moment to catch her breath. She turned around to wait for him to catch up, the wind once again tangling her hair and creating a messy halo around her face._

 _It was only the pair of them, atop the cliff, that was a good fifty meters or so above all their friends and definitely out of earshot. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the sun beat down on them, creating a sheen on Letty's tanned skin as it reflected off her wet body. Dom couldn't help but lick his lower lip as he glanced over her, the white bikini barely containing her full breasts and tight ass that he couldn't get enough of. Then his eyes went back to her face, where she was giving him a knowing grin, and he felt his stomach tighten as he smiled back. They walked side by side to the edge of the cliff and Letty shot him a cheeky smirk, her eyes glittering. Just as she was bracing herself to jump, Dom caught her elbow and pulled her back. She raised an eyebrow questioningly at him._

 _"What's up?" She asked._

 _"Uh," Dom rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, a rush of wind suddenly cooling his wet torso. "Uh, there's something that I wanted to tell you." Letty continued to watch him silently, although she was tapping her finger was tapping against her thigh erratically, a sure sign that she was nervous. "I'm kind of in love with you, Let." It came out all jumbled up and the completely opposite of smooth. He changed a look at her and felt his stomach as he saw her wary facial expression._

 _"You know you don't have to say stuff like that to get me to fool around with you," Letty began. "Shit, you should know I'm not one of those girls—"_

 _"Yeah, I know you're not," Dom quickly rushed on, taking a step closer to her. "You're completely fucking different from all those other girls. God, I've never met anyone like you!" He grimaced at how cheesy that sounded and pinched the bridge of his nose. He took in a deep breath and rubbed his hands up and down her bare arms, stepping so close to her that their bodies were pressed together. "I love you, Letty." She was chewing down on her lower lip and she studied him. Dom's rush of courage was starting to ebb away and he lifted his hands from her arms to cup her neck, fiddling nervously with her bikini straps. "You can say something at any time now," he told her, smiling worriedly. She blinked and him and swallowed hard._

 _"You're not just saying this so I'll suck your cock?" She croaked out. Dom felt relief rush through his body and his face relaxed into his trademark, cock smirk._

 _"Well, it might have a_ little _something to do with how good you feeling sucking my cock," Dom smirked and he felt the tension in Letty's body leave as she settled in his arms. Letty rolled her eyes and looped her arms around his neck, shaking her head from side to side so that her hair was out of her face and trailing down her back._

 _"Okay," Letty nodded,a small smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. "Yeah," she gave a short nod._

 _"Yeah?" Dom's eyes lit up._

 _"Yeah," the smile broke across Letty's face. "I love you too, Dom." The grin he returned to her almost split his face in half. He dropped his arms to her waist and picked her up, spinning them around and laughing along with her. She lowered her head so that her lips were on his and he welcomed her eager kiss as he stopped the world from turning and put her back on the ground._

* * *

Dom was jerked from his dream and he looked around the room as came to terms with where he was.

 _Not_ by the beach with Letty.

 _Not_ pressed against her cold, wet body and kissing her warm, full lips.

He blinked and rubbed his hand over his face, listening to the silence of the night and wondering what it was that woke him up.

And there it was.

A high pitched squeal that pierced through the darkness and Dom sighed. He looked over at his bedside table and clicked the center button of his phone, squinting as it lit up and told him that it was just after two.

There was another squeal and then it settled to full-throated wails that Dom knew weren't going to let up. He got out of bed, and walked out of his room, almost walking into the door frame as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. He made it down the hallway and into the end room, where the crying was at it's loudest. He walked over to the corner of the room, nearly tripping over toys that were scrambled across the floor. A wooden cot was set up in the corner and two little hands were peeking out through the slats, reaching out to him. Her cries quietened as soon as she saw the man she loved most in the world coming over to her.

"Hey, baby," Dom murmured as he reached the coat and looked down. A little girl with a smattering of dark hair stared up at him, blinking her wet eyelashes up at him. Her cheeks were tear stained and her hands went up, opening and closing in a motion indicating she wanted to be picked up. He reached down and lifted her small, warm body, cradling it against his chest, taking in a short breath through his nose. He couldn't smell anything, so he assumed that wasn't the reason she was crying. So he gathered that she was hungry. "I thought we were getting you out of the habit of a midnight feed," Dom cooed to her as he picked up a soft purple and blue blanket from the bed and lay it over her before walking out of the bedroom. His daughter snuffled against his shirt, fisting it in her tiny hands as they reached the kitchen. "It's okay, sweetheart," he whispered as her whimpers started again. "We'll get you something to eat shortly." She started tugging at his shirt and Dom bounced lightly to try and keep her from getting restless while he got a bottle out of the fridge. She stared up at her father in the dull light from the fridge and Dom smiled down at her, placing a small kiss on her nose. "It's okay, Hadley. Daddy loves you." She reached up to touch his face, giving him a gummy smile before burying her face back into his chest.

 _Weeeeell, guess what? It's my birthday tomorrow. Whoop whoop. Twenty-one years. Shit, I feel bloody old. And in true twenty-first fashion, I'm working until eight at night and then this weekend, going out to dinner and probably home by ten. Haha. I'm such a nana, and I totally love it._

 _Oooh, and I saw_ Pitch Perfect 2 _! Ohmygod, so good. I mean, no where near as good as the new one but still very good. Elizabeth Banks is so incredible, and I love Anna Kendrick, she's adorable._

 _Oh yes, and if you review on this chapter (and are logged in and allow PM's) I'll send you a sneak peek of the next chapter!_


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm so glad that you guys enjoyed the first chapter. I love all your reviews! Like, they honestly make my day. Just one other thing I need to say is that there's a lot going on in my life right now, and it may be a while before I'm able to update again. It might not be, I could get some time, but I'm just giving you guys some warning in advance._

"You're a lifesaver, Mi," Dom breathed as his sister picked Hadley up out of her stroller and pressed a kiss to the girls forehead.

"That's what family's are for, right?" Mia grinned as Hadley made a face at her and then giggled when her aunty made one back. Mia looked back and raised an eyebrow at Dom. "Well, some family," she said pointedly, before looking back at Hadley and putting on her high pitched, baby voice. "Except for your mummy, aye, darling girl?" Mia nuzzled her nose into the soft skin of Hadley's neck and she squealed happily. "Except for your mummy, who's just a little bitch—"

"Mi," Dom said warningly. Mia took in a deep breath and fixed an attempted calming smile on her face.

"Okay, rant over," she said. Dom's eyes lifted when he heard noise in the house and Brian O'Conner, his sisters boyfriend and one of his closest friends, appeared in the doorway. He gave him an easy grin before looking at the toddler in his girls arms. He held out a few fingers and Hadley flailed her arms about, reaching out to grab them.

"You know you can stay here with us, right, sweetness?" Brian cooed, shooting a cheeky smile for Dom. "You don't need to hand out with this oaf all the time." Hadley giggled before pulling Brian's hand closer to her and putting his fingers into her mouth, gnawing down on them. "Alright, I'll catch you later, Mi," Brian leaned in to kiss Mia on the mouth and then one of Hadley's forehead. "My car?" Brian asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"I don't think so, man," Dom replied, already walking down the drive and toward his car. Brian grinned at Mia and carefully extracted his fingers his fingers from Hadley's mouth and wiped off the drool on his jeans as he followed after the Cuban. As he slid into the passenger seat, he felt something under his ass and jumped up and hit his head on the roof. He reached underneath him and pulled out a blue teddy bear that had pink eyes and paws.

"Shit, man," Brian grinned as he tossed the bear into the backseat. "A year ago, did you think that you would be going around with teddy bears and—" Brian shifted his feet through the clutter of things on the floor of the car and grinned again. "And baby wipes?"

"I didn't even think about this eight months ago," Dom replied quietly, turning over the engine of his car and pulling away from the curb. Brian glanced over at Dom and saw he had a serious, almost somber expression—one that often seemed to be on his face for the past few months. Brian chewed down on his lower lip and tapped his fingers against his thigh.

"Have you heard from her lately?" Brian asked, his voice soft and non-threatening. Dom's fingers flexed on the steering wheel and for a moment, Brian thought he was going to go quiet and it was going to be a long way to work in awkward silence. But then Dom surprised him and spoke.

"She called last week," his voice was low and gravelly. "Asking for money." He took in a deep breath and shook his head. "Didn't even ask about Hadley." Brian pursed his lips to stop himself from saying something negative—Mia did that enough for everyone—and settled for shooting him a sympathetic smile. "What can you do though, right?" Dom continued, almost to himself now. "Addicts only care about themselves."

The rest of the drive was spent in quiet, other than the music playing from the radio. When they pulled up outside the newly opened DT's garage, Brian hoped work would be enough to drag his friend from his funk.

* * *

He really wasn't a man to be stuck in an office in front of a computer but given Mia's looked after his daughter so often and didn't expect anything in return, he owed her at least _trying_ to sort through the invoices for the weekend. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when Mia finished her accounting degree and actually got a full time job—he didn't know who else he would trust with the finances of his family business. He thew down the pen he was chewing on and leaned back in his seat. Music was playing loudly in the garage and he could hear the boys yelling and laughing. Dom stood up and stretched, deciding to take a break from the accounts and actually do some work he was good at—and enjoyed.

"Decided to stop fucking up the book work for our lovely Mia to come back and fix after you?" Roman Pearce joked as Dom came out into the garage. Dom pulled the fingers at his friend but there as a playful smile on his face as he did so. "You know you just double her work load?" Roman continued as he leaned against one of the trolleys by the car he was working on. "You _think_ you're helping, but you really don't have a clue what you're doing."

"Bro," Tej Bridges had that long-suffering expression on his face that he got almost anytime Roman opened his mouth. "You barely graduated pre-school. You ain't got two feet to stand on." Roman looked as though he was going to snap back something smart, but Tej kicked out at the trolley he was leaning on. It sent the trolley rolling away and Roman nearly went sprawling to the ground, but he managed to awkwardly recover. He shot a dirty look at Tej and then the rest of the crew that were laughing. Brian clapped his hand down on Roman's shoulder, giving him a cheeky grin.

"No worries, bro," he began. "That forehead of yours would have broken your fall." Dom grinned as Roman started protesting and he turned his back to his friends, walking over to a car he was working on in the corner.

It kept him occupied for a good few hours, almost until closing time. He worked right through lunch, and the boys knew better than to disrupt him. A year ago, Dom wouldn't go more than half an hour without cracking a joke or throwing out an insult—even if he was wrapped up in an engine—but now it was like he could focus on one thing forever, not once needing to come up for a breath of air. In a way it was good; Dom had taken over the family business when his father had passed away, and he need to be mature and level-headed when operating both a chain of DT garages and a small corner market. But then there was also the downside; where Dom was only twenty-four years old, and he had the responsibilities of someone far older. While his friends were stumbling home at three in the morning from clubbing and drinking, he was attempting to get a few steady hours of sleep.

"Hey, bro," Vince Martin was suddenly behind him and Dom looked up and blinked.

"Shit, man, when did you get here?" He asked, grinning at his oldest friend and reaching over to slap him on the back affectionately.

"Like half an hour ago, bro! You didn't even notice me!" Vince laughed. Dom looked up at the clock on the wall and his eyes widened in surprise as he realized it was just after five. "Mi called and said to come over for dinner. Thought I'd stop by here first to see if you were still working."

"Yeah, just finishing up," Dom rubbed the back of his neck and looked underneath the bonnet of the car he had been working on. It wasn't quite perfect yet, but the owner wasn't coming until tomorrow afternoon, so he had plenty of time to finish up in the morning. "Brian, you ready?" He shouted over Vince's shoulder to where Brian was standing with Tej and Roman by the roller door at the front of the garage. Brian nodded in reply and Dom looked back at Vince. "We'll see you back at the house.

"You ride in with buster?" Vince snorted.

"No," Dom gave him a lazy, half smirk. "The buster rode in with me." Vince snorted out a laugh before turning around and leaving the garage, yelling goodbye to the rest of the team as he went. Dom unhooked the metal rod that was holding the hood open and let it down gently, before wiping his hands down with one of the rags on a nearby trolley. He walked into the office and pulled out the money from the register, locking it away in the safe and mentally making a note that he would need to go through and count it tomorrow. He grabbed his jacket and keys from the desk and walked back out into the garage to join his boys.

"So is it dinner at your place tonight, bro?" Tej asked with a smirk as he and Brian walked out in front. Roman was closest to all the switches, and turned off the lights and then hit the big green button that released the roller door.

"I'm always up for Mia's cooking," Roman grinned eagerly and rubbed his hands together.

"Yeah, sure," Brian shrugged. "We can throw something together." Roman paused and lifted an eyebrow.

"I said I'm up for _Mia's_ cooking. Not your half-assed attempts at cooking a sausage," he stated. The other three boys laughed and Brian punched him lightly in the arm, still walking toward his car. He looked back over his shoulder when he realized that Roman was still watching him go, a worried look on his face. "I ain't kidding, man! Remember that time Mia was out of town and we cooked those burgers? I don't think I've ever had food poisoning that bad."

"Just get your ass over to the house," Brian laughed as he got into the passenger side of Dom's 1974 Plymouth Barracuda. Dom shot one last look back at the tall, dark skinned man, who still looked—well, frankly terrified—at the possibility of Brian's cooking, and got in the drivers seat. He turned over the engine and shifted into gear. Then he frowned and looked over at the blonde next to him.

"Did you really give him food poisoning?"

* * *

It was a good thing that Mia had been taught from an early age to always cook more than needed, because she had only expected her man, her brother, Vince and his girlfriend to be over for dinner, and she ended up with Roman, Tej and Jesse Lomas as well. She didn't look particularly surprised, though, as they all trooped into the house.

"Boots _off_ at the door," she reminded them from the kitchen as she heard the front door swing open. Vince and Rosa Osorio were the first to walk in, Vince giving Mia a kiss on the cheek before grabbing a beer out of the fridge and bee-lining for the lounge. Rosa stayed in the kitchen with Mia to help with dinner. The rest of the boys, starting with Brian and ending with Dom, came in next. Kissing Mia and Rosa, and then each taking a beer and joining Vince in the lounge, where the TV was now turned on. Dom leaned against the kitchen table, arms crossed over his chest as the two woman moved in sync around the kitchen.

Bet you didn't expect this many for dinner," he observed as he saw there was now another pack of mince being pulled out of the fridge.

"Not quite," Mia grinned over her shoulder as she put on more pasta. "But the more the merrier."

"Where's my girl?" Dom asked, looking down the hallway and into the lounge, wondering if she was in her walker.

"She fell asleep," Mia cringed as she looked back at Dom. Her brother groaned and made a face. "I'm sorry, Dom! She only slept for like half an hour this morning, and then she didn't go down for her nap after lunch and I think I may have wore her out in the jolly jumper while I was studying this afternoon."

"She's gonna be awake for half the night," Dom muttered.

"Sorry, Dom," Mia repeated but he just shook his head.

"It's fine, Mi. She in the spare room?" Mia nodded and Dom left the room. He walked down the hallway to where there was a port-a-cot set up, something that Dom had invested in a couple of months ago, given how much time he and his daughter spent at his sisters house. Hadley was awake, although it looked as though it had only just happened, given she was still blinking sleepily and her fingers were lazily clutching a purple teddy bear at her side. She heard him enter the room and turned her head, her eyes widening when she saw Dom coming closer, looking a lot more alert all of a sudden.

"Hey, sweetheart," Dom cooed and an angelic smile pulled at Hadley's lips. She lifted both her hands in the air as he leaned over the side of the cot, and kicked out with her little feet. "You wouldn't go to sleep for your Aunty Mia, aye? And now you're gonna have your daddy up all night?" Hadley giggled and grasped at his shirt with her tiny fist. He shook his head, unable to keep the smile off his face. There was a noise behind him and he turned around.

"There was something I wanted to tell you, when you were alone," Mia said, coming into the room with her brother and neice. Dom raised an eyebrow as she joined them, holding out a finger to Hadley. The little girl gripped it tightly in her hand and started chewing down on it instantly.

"What is it, Mi?" Dom asked.

"It's Letty," Mia said, licking her lips nervously as she looked up at him. "She called me this morning. Said that she's moving back."

 _We went to go and see_ Mad Max _in the weekend and it was actually pretty good. I didn't really know what to expect but I actually quite enjoyed it. Tom Hardy is always a complete babe, and I love Charlize Theron. The other thing that has made me happy—or more just thankful—is the fact that me and my husband are healthy. I mean, a lot of what's going on right now is that there are two people who are really important to me who are unwell in one way or another, and I'm just glad that me and my hubby are good!_

 _Let me know what your thoughts are!_

 _And if you leave a review, I'll send you a preview of the next chapter :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey, guys! I'm back! It's been a while, I know, I apologize. Works been hectic, my dad and my best friend are still recovering and my migraines have been getting worse—thankfully I've finally got an appointment next week with a specialist, so hopefully can get that all sorted. I've also felt a little disheartened from coming on here because there's been a lot of negativity in some fandoms I'm in...Between authors and reviewers and it just kinda sucks, because I know some amazing authors who have taken down their stories and are now refusing to post anymore because of it. Really sucks :( We gotta be there and support each other, you beautiful people!_

 _Anyway, on with the story!_

Dom didn't get much sleep that night.

Not that he _usually_ got an unbroken night of sleep, but tonight it wasn't because of a nightmare, or a dream, or Hadley.

He hadn't seen Letty in almost five years and now she was moving back. As far as he was aware, Letty had completely cut off everyone when she had moved—even Mia. Dom knew that his sister blamed him for her best friend hightailing it out of Los Angeles, and if things hadn't been completely crazy at the time, it would have been a point of contention. As it was, the siblings had been forced to grow up quite quickly and they had relied heavily on each other to get through, so Mia really didn't have time to be angry with him. She had mentioned Letty a couple of times; she had recieved phone calls on her birthday and at Christmas, but from what he knew, that was as far as their contact had gone. Letty didn't even have a Facebook, which was strange in and of itself in this day and age, when everyone was on social media. Or at least, if she had a Facebook, she had hidden it well, because on the rare occasion he logged into his and typed her name into the search engine, nothing came up.

Around one o'clock Dom gave up trying to sleep and got up, padding down the stairs in just his sweatpants and going into the lounge.

For a long time he had thought about selling his family home and using the proceeds to buy something else. He didn't care what, he just wanted to get him and Mia out of there. But she had talked him out of it, reminding them of all the memories they had there. Sometimes it was like she was the older sibling; she was definitely more emotionally mature than he was. When their parents had died, he had completely closed down and shut everyone out. He had functioned, but he hadn't processed anything. In fact, nothing seemed to sink in until almost three months after the fateful day, when Letty had left.

There was broken light from the moon falling through the netting over the windows and it provided enough for Dom to make out the photos on the mantle piece. It had been almost two years before he let his sister put the photos back up, and now he was glad that she did. The large photo in the center was of his parents, Tony and Amanda Toretto, on their wedding day. It wasn't one of the photos taken by the professional photographer, but by one of the guests. Dom remembered his dad talking about the photo—it was taken during his best mans speech and the bride and groom were looking at each other, both of them smiling, completely enraptured by each other. Tony was just staring at Amanda, this look of complete _love_ on his face, and Amanda was grinning back. Dom loved the photo and ran his finger across the bottom of the frame, a heavy feeling in his stomach.

The photo to the left was of Dom, Mia, Brian, Jesse and Vince, taken two months ago. Everyone was smiling widely at the camera except Dom. He remembered his sister looking at the photo after she had it printed for him and giving him a sad look. He hadn't really understood at the time, but when he had looked at it after he had gotten it.

His smile just wasn't the same as it once was.

To the right was another favorite photo.

Him and Letty.

It was on her eighteenth birthday, and she was wearing a long white dress with cut outs in the sides, revealing her flawless, tanned skin. He was wearing a button down shirt that he had brought specially for the occasion and a pair of clean jeans, and his smile was so wide it looked like it was going to break his face in half. Letty was mid laugh, her eyes sparkling and her bangs falling in front of her eyes.

Dom could never look at that photo for long, but he couldn't take it down.

It made him feel better, knowing that she was right there with him; even if it was just a photo.

And then as he lifted his eyes, his lips turned up as he took in the clutter of photos that he had of Hadley. The light of his light. There was a photo of Hadley wearing a bumble bee outfit that Mia had dressed her up in for Halloween, there was one of her in her bathing suit in the blow up pool he had set up for her in the back yard, and then three others just of his baby looking adorable.

Sharing the photos and things that happened with Hadley through the day with Mia and his boys was good, but it just wasn't enough.

It wasn't the same as sharing them with someone who loved Hadley as much as he did.

Dom swallowed the lump that was welling in his throat and shook his head, trying to get out of his head. He rubbed his hand over his forehead and turned to go back up the stairs. It was likely his girl was going to wake up in a few hours, and if he didn't get at least an hour or so of sleep, he was going to be the walking dead tomorrow.

* * *

"You _can_ tell him, you realize," Brian lifted his eyebrow at Mia, who was buzzing around the kitchen, getting her lunch ready for the day.

"You didn't know him when he had Letty," Mia replied as she shut the container with her sandwich and put it into her handbag. "He was a completely different person. After my parents and Letty, he was just never the same. Having Hadley definitely brought him out of that dark place he disappeared too, but when you loose the person you love, it's something you can't just replace." Brian watched her carefully before tilting his head to the side and giving her a slightly unnerved smile.

"You're not talking from experience there, are you, babe?" He asked. Mia laughed and came around the table to where her boyfriend was sitting, dropping a kiss to his mouth.

"Brian O'Conner, you are the only man I have ever loved," she promised him. Brian grinned back at her and then resumed their previous conversation.

"So what's gonna happen when he finds out that you're going out with her? That she's back _this_ weekend?" Brian asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He's not going to find out," Mia replied as she leaned back against the bench.

"He's not going to find out what?" Dom asked, appearing at the doorway between the lounge and the kitchen, Hadley in one arm and and the diaper bag slung over his shoulder. Mia's lips parted in surprise and she looked over to Brian for help, but her boyfriend just grinned and ducked his head to eat his breakfast.

"How do you know we're talking about you?" Mia teased. "You and your ego. Anyway, it's none of your business." She walked over to her brother and niece and brushed her finger against Hadley's cheek, and the baby leaned into the touch with a satisfied sigh. "How's our girl?"

"Well, she still has that cough and a bit of a runny nose," Dom twisted his mouth. "So I'm coming back a bit earlier today, I have her booked in at the doctor's at three."

"Aw," Mia reached out her hands and took Hadley from her brother. "It's probably just a summer cold."

"I'm still getting her checked out," Dom replied. Mia grinned as she bounced Hadley up and down.

"You're such an over protective daddy," she teased him. He rolled his eyes as he took the diaper bag off his shoulder and dumped it on the ground. "Okay, well I'm going into town around twelve but I should be back by three. And I've got a class tomorrow, so do you know what you're going to do with our girl?"

"Yeah, I've got a day care that I'm going to try out. I'll take her in tomorrow, see if she likes it. If she does, she can start going more, give you back your life."

"Come on, Dom," Mia gave him a stern look. "That's not how I view it."

"I know. Because you're too nice," Dom grinned and reached over to give her a kiss on her forehead. "You ready to go?" He asked, looking over at Brian.

"Yup," Brian replied through a mouthful of cereal. He shoved the last spoon into his mouth and got up, putting his bowl in the sink and grabbing his wallet and keys off the bench. He gave Mia and Hadley a kiss each and then followed Dom out. Mia picked up Hadley's little hand and waved it up and down.

"Bye, daddy," she cooed out in a squeaky voice. "Bye, Uncle Brian." Hadley giggled at her aunt's words and pulled her hand away to tangle it in Mia's long, dark hair. Dom and Brian were at the car now, getting inside and turning on the engine. Mia kissed Hadley on the cheek and then turned around and headed back toward the lounge, where her cellphone was charging. "Now, we don't tell dad about this, okay, baby girl? Because he would throw a bitch fit." Mia winced and shot another look down at her neice. "That better not be your first word." Hadley gave her a gummy smile and waved her hands about, tugging at Mia's hair as she did so. Mia picked up her phone and swiped right at the text that had come through earlier. When the screen changed, she clicked the icon of the phone and held it up to her ear. Hadley started wriggling in her arms and Mia put her down in the fenced off area in the corner with her piles of toys. The ringing stopped in Mia's ear and it clicked through as someone picked it up. "Letty?" Mia asked.

"Hey, Mi," Leticia Ortiz breathed down the phone.

"God, Letty," Mia felt a stupid smile break out across her face. "It's been forever."

"I text you last week!" Letty protested.

"Yeah, but you haven't called since mum and dad's anniversary last year," Mia replied. She felt a wave of sadness rush over her at the thought and quickly squashed it down, focusing on the fact that her best friend was on the other end of the line. "Anyway, I'm totally free this weekend. And even if I wasn't, I'd _make_ it free."

"Yeah, you would. I'm too big of a deal to pass up." From the teasing tone, she could practically hear Letty smirking into the phone.

"Is it just going to be us?"

"Uh yeah, there's going to be one other chick. She got the same promotion that I did," Letty continued. "Her name's Gisele."

"Is it algood if I bring Ramsey?"

"Yeah, the more the merrier," Letty answered. "Anyway, I'm just about to head into work now, but I'll see you in a couple days."

"Absolutely."

"Oh, uh, and Mia?" Letty sounded hesitant for the first time since getting on the phone, and uncertain wasn't really a trait that Letty often exuded. "Have you told Dom?" Mia bit down on her lower lip, looking down at Hadley, who had a plastic teething ring in her mouth and was gnawing away happily. "Mia?"

"Yeah, I told Dom yesterday," she answered. Letty was quiet for a moment.

"How was he?" Mia twisted her mouth, trying to think of the right thing to say. In the end, she went with the truth.

"He was surprised," she murmured.

"I better go," Letty told her, sounding distant. "I'll catch you later, Mi."

"Bye, Letty," Mia replied, before pulling her phone away from her ear and ending the call. She walked over to where Hadley was playing and the girl looked up at her, blinking her big brown eyes. "Well, baby girl. Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting around here."

 _Now there's been heaps of things that have gone on the past few months I haven't posted and I was wondering what to put up here! So these things both relate to SDCC—by the way, if anyone knows where to get Bob Morley's hat, let me know ;)_

 _First thing is, have you guys seen all the trailers that came out? Whoop whoop whoop!_ Deadpool _and_ Suicide Squad _look amazeballs. Margot Robbie looks like a perfect Harley Quinn and I've already got her theme song picked out in my head. Haha._

 _Second thing was the tribute to Jared Padelecki. That was beautiful and made me want to cry! When they all lit up candles and handed him a note...Mental illness is horrible and he has done such an amazing job at raising awareness and assuring people that it's nothing to be ashamed about. He seems like such a beautiful person :)_

 _That's all from me today! Let me know what you all think. And remember, if you review, you get a preview of the next chapter xx_


	4. Chapter 4

_We're switching over to Letty in this chapter for a little bit of background there. Thank you guys so much for support, I'm so glad you're enjoying it as much as I am :)_

"Is that it? Please tell me that's it!" The gorgeous Israeli groaned and leaned against the moving truck. It was a hot afternoon, and she was only wearing a tiny purple and green jumpsuit, but she was still feeling hot from lugging all the boxes down to the truck. A pretty Latina, wearing a pair of frayed denim minishorts and a white tank top, appeared from the other side of the the truck, carrying a large box. Two mover men were behind her, carrying out a heavy looking, mahogany dresser.

"Dude! This is all your shit!" Leticia Ortiz protested. "You have so much stuff—you're like a fucking hoarder!" She dumped down the box she was holding and swiped her hand over her sweaty forehead. "Bloody typical that your man was too _'busy'_ to help us out," she muttered.

"But he will be there, helping me unpack, which will be scarier," Gisele Harabo reminded her. She let out a little squeal and bounced over to hug the unwilling brunette. "I can't believe it! I can't believe that I'm going to finally be living in the same city as him. This long distance sucks shit."

"I still don't get why you guys aren't moving in together," Letty said, pulling her hair back into tighter ponytail, given that it had gradually starting falling out through the morning.

"I don't want to rush things," Gisele repeated her sentiments from earlier that morning. "I mean, being able to see each other every week rather than every other month is already a big enough deal, so I think that's a big enough change for now. I don't want to rush things and push them."

"Gisele. You know that you and Han are perfect for each other," Letty told her. "Moving in together it kind of the next step in relationship."

"No," Gisele stated. "Moving into the same _city_ as him is the first step," she said firmly. "We can look at moving in together after we've adjusted to that." Letty shrugged and looked down at the time on her phone.

"Our flight leaves in two hours," she said as she looked into the moving truck. "We really should of sent our stuff earlier." She crinkled up her nose in distaste.

"Well, that's what happens when you get offered a promotion at the last minute," Gisele shrugged, looking completely unfazed. "And it's not like you're organized anyway. Besides, who cares? It'll be like camping! And your friend is taking us out tomorrow night, right? So then we'll be too drunk to care that we're in a hotel for a few days. We might be able to crash at her place for the night as well." Gisele was starting to bounce again and Letty couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay, girl, let's get our asses moving. I want to change before we get on the plane, I'll use the bathrooms at the airport," she said, grabbing her hoodie from the fence and slinging it over her shoulder. "See you boys in a couple of days!" She called over her shoulder to the moving men who shouting 'goodbye' to her and Gisele.

"Anyway," Gisele began as they started walking toward the taxi, waiting at the curb. "It's not our _stuff_ that you're going to miss. It's your _baby_ ," she nudged her in the side and grinned. The pained expression on Letty's face just got worse as she thought about her car, which she had dropped off with the moving company this morning. She might have been just a little bit explicit when explaining what she would do to them if there was a single scratch on it.

"I'm so not okay with this," Letty stuck out her lower lip. "I would have _happily_ driven the whole way there."

"Chill out," Gisele shook her heaad. "The company is paying all of the moving costs and for the air tickets—take advantage of the situation!" Letty was still pouting about being apart from her Jensen Interceptor for a weekend. Gisele laughed again and tugged her toward the taxi. "Even if the company didn't offer to pay for all the shipping, I'm sure your boyfriend would have talked his daddy around," Gisele cooed and jabbed her in the side.

"He's not my boyfriend," Letty shot back with a glare.

"He might as well be. I bet that he requested you get this promotion so that you could be close to him," Gisele smirked. "Late nights...In a foreign city...Alone in the office..."

"It's not a foreign city! I grew up there!" Letty protested. "Besides, if it was just because he wanted to sleep with me, why did you get the promotion as well?" Letty raised an eyebrow.

"Because he knew that you would never take the job if you had to leave me behind," Gisele sung out. Letty rolled her eyes, but there was a smile pulling at the corner of her lips. Gisele got into the backseat of the taxi and then looked up at the house they had just finished packing up. "I'm gonna miss this place," she commented.

"Even though the toliet never flushed properly and the central heating was pitiful and the kitchen sink always dripped?" Letty quipped sarcastically.

"Hey," Gisele said warningly. "This place has been a good home. We've been here almost five years!"

"Five years of putting up with your ass," Letty smirked. Gisele huffed under her breath.

"Geez, you're lovely," she said sarcastically.

"Fucking lovely," Letty agreed with a smile, buckling herself into the seat beside Gisele. "To the airport, please," she said to the driver.

* * *

It was a long flight, and Gisele fell asleep after half an hour, but Letty remained wide awake. There was no way that she was able to sleep when she only hours away from being in the same area code as Dominic Toretto. It had been years since she had seen or talked to him, but she had thought about him every day since she had left. Letty had led a good life; she had good friends and a good job, but there had never been someone who filled the void that Dom had left. When Owen Shaw had first approached her about the job in the branch that was opening in the Los Angeles district, she had been tempted to turn it down. But after a couple of nights to think about it, she had accepted the offer.

Telling Mia had been fun, hearing the Cuban girl scream down the line in excitement. God, it had been too long since she had seen her best friend; introducing her to Gisele was going to be a good time. And she was looking forward to finally meetng Brian, the man who had cleary stolen Mia's heart. Mia had come out and visited Letty a couple of times since she had met him, and she was gushing every time.

And then there were all the guys that she had grown up, who were like older brothers to her. She had calls from them on her birthday and Christmas, and the occasional text through the year, but they were guys. Communication wasn't their strong suit.

And then there was Dom's baby.

Hadley.

When Letty had found out about the baby girl a couple of months ago, it had been like a punch in the stomach. And then when she had found out the name...Letty had called into work for three days straight, barely leaving her bed except to go toliet and binge on chocolate mousse. Gisele had obviously known that something was wrong, but Letty had never been one to discuss her feelings, but Gisele had let her friend cry on her shoulder that night and stutter out her story. It wasn't Mia or the boys who had told her, which at first pissed her off, but she had to grudgingly understand why they hadn't after she had clamed down. But she worked at a lawyers firm—it was her _job_ to dig up dirt that people buried and tried to hide. Given Dom wasn't trying _at all_ to hide his daughter, it made things easier. She hadn't told Mia that she knew—she could tell that when she had spoken with her the other morning that there was something more that she wanted to say, but Mia had held her tongue.

Maybe she was waiting until she was going to see Letty face to face.

To be fair, if she didn't already know, finding out the news that her ex-boyfriend and love of her life had had a baby with some other woman and then named that baby after her over the phone...Maybe it out like that wouldn't have gone over so well.

"I can smell you over thinking," came a sleep voice from beside her and Letty looked across at Gisele. The girl cracked open an eye to look at her and sighed. "You know that it's all going to work out find, right?"

"Mm," Letty mumbled noncommittally.

"Hey," Gisele reached out to grasp the Latinas hand and squeezed. "It's going to be fine. With the job and Owen... _And_ with Dominic and his baby." Letty chewed down on her lower lip and nodded hesitantly. "Okay, so—get some sleep! You're not going to have either of those men drooling over you if you look like a zombie." Letty sihed and closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the cushiony head rest. Gisele was right.

She just wished that every time she closed her eyes, she didn't see Dom's face.

 _Ooh, okay, so I've completely and utterly fallen in love with this song called_ Undone _by Haley Reinhart. It is gorgeous. I've pretty much had it on repeat for the past week._

 _And the other thing I've loved the past week is that the Teen Choice Awards! So, the_ Fast and Furious _cast were so cute, holding hands (especially Vin and Michelle) and I teared up a little when Paul Walker got his award. So beautiful. And then when Jensen and Misha got Choice TV Comedy Award. Hahahaha. Fell a little bit more in love with the pair of them then. And also, the selfies that Tyler Blackburn and Ashley Benson took were fucking adorable. God I love those two._

 _Remember there's a preview for a review :)_


	5. Chapter 5

_You guys seem so into this! I'm so glad you're enjoying it! Not too far away until we get the meeting, don't worry guys :)_

It had been four days since Dom had found out that Letty was coming back and that ache in his stomach felt like it was going to consume him. Dom had always known that Letty was the love of his life, and a day hadn't gone by when he hadn't missed her at _some_ point. They had been together for two years, and they had been friends for so much longer than that. She had waltzed into his life after Mia's second day of pre-school, and she had walked back out the day he had said that things weren't okay between them and he didn't want to be with her anymore. He wasn't some tween chick who believed that 'love conquered all' and all that crap. He believed that love was amazing, but nine times out of ten, it was heart breaking.

And the proof of that was in almost everything around him.

With his parents, their love was timeless, something that could be seen just in a simple glance between them. When the crash had happened, Antonio Toretto had died instantly. The drunk driver had smashed into the drivers side of the car and killed his father, and put Maria Toretto into critical condition for almost a week. She fought death until one day she woken up and had asked her children about her husband.

Their expressions gave their answers before they even opened their mouths.

She had died six hours later.

The doctors said that it was like her body had just given up.

Then there was Letty.

Despite being so young, Dom was certain that he had loved her. That he still loved her. She had always been there for him, and his family, and his friends. With hindsight, he wished liked hell that he hadn't been so hasty in pushing her away. She had always been good for him, and she had such an addictive personality that he couldn't help but want to be around her as much as he could. Then he had lost her, and he had missed her every second since.

But then there was a squawk from the ground and Dom blinked, his attention reigning back in to his gorgeous little daughter who was sprawled out on the ground, giving him a wide, gummy smile and he had to regret the direction of his thoughts.

If things had been any different in his past, he wouldn't have Hadley, and she was the most amazing thing in his life.

He had been in a screwed up place; getting high and drunk every day of the week. Spending every cent he had on drugs and alcohol for almost three years. But then his Mia and his friends—his family, his team—had pulled him out of his funk. They had jerked him back to reality, and he was always thankful for that. But then, he had had a call out of blue from a girl that he guessed could be called his girlfriend, and then Hadley was all his.

"Dude! This is gonna be wicked!" Jesse cried out, and Dom glanced over to where Brian and the younger boy were sitting at the kitchen table, Jesse's laptop in front of them. They were laying out some new ideas for a car that Brian had brought a few weeks ago, and it sounded as though it was going well. Mia had some girls night tonight, so Dom had come over to keep Brian company, along with his little girl. "So we want to go with this?"

"Yeah, looks good, bro," Brian nodded.

"Aight," Jesse nodded, and typed a couple more things on his keyboard before leaning back in his seat. "Okay, sweet. I'll get these things ordered tomorrow. So, I'm off now. Got a date."

"You got a date?" Dom piped up from the lounge and Jesse turned around in his seat to grin back at him.

"Yeah, man! This girl I met a few weeks ago at the races. We're gonna go out for dinner, maybe get a movie."

"Dinner and a movie," Dom said wryly with a raised eyebrow. "How original."

"Well then if shit gets too weird, I can bail in the middle of the cinema," Jesse shrugged, as though he had thought all of this through extensively, which in reality was highly unlikely. Leon had probably given him a run down, and given Leon's dating history, he had probably told Jesse the best escape routes. Leon was pretty much legendary for bailing on the most dates in the city. Maybe the world. "Anyway, I'll catch you guys later."

"Yeah, see you on Sunday," Brian said as Jesse got up from the table and came into the lounge. Hadley was laying on the ground, surrounded by her play pen to stop her crawling off and finding something to shove into her mouth.

"You know you're still the number one girl in my life, right, Lee? No horny, insanely hot chick is ever gonna replace you," Jesse murmured as he reached down to kiss Hadley on the cheek. She gurgled up at him and he grinned.

"Because that's what every father wants to hear the creep uncle saying to their daughter," Dom muttered and Brian let out a snort. Jesse rolled his eyes as he ruffled her short hair one last time before straightening up.

"Laters, bro," he nodded at Dom before leaving the house. Dom glanced after him before the door slammed shut and then he looked back at Brian.

"So where's my sister at tonight?" Dom asked.

"Girls night," Brian replied with a shrug as he got up from the kitchen table and disappeared into the kitchen itself for a moment. When he reappeared, he had two beers in his hands. He handed one to Dom as he sat down on the arm chair, next to the couch that his friend was in, both of them facing Hadley, who was laying on her stomach on the floor. "Some friends from out of town are visiting, and she said she wanted to catch up." Which was the truth, but not the _entire_ truth—Mia had warned him multiple times not to say anything about Letty, but that didn't mean that Brian was comfortable hiding things from his best friend.

"Oh, yeah," Dom turned his eyes toward the TV and nodded over to it. "You wanna turn it on? I think there's a basketball game on."

"Sounds good," Brian was grateful for the out, and reached over to grab the remote from the side table and flicked it on. He switched through the channels until he found the game, and turned the volume up.

* * *

The game finished on TV just after eleven, and Hadley was fast asleep on the ground, one hand clutching the ribbon on the corner of her blanket and the other hand resting above her head. The play pen was pulled down now, and she was swaddled in her favourite blanket with her teddy bear. She was letting out little puffs of breath and Dom smiled tenderly as he slid off the couch and onto his knees beside her. Brian picked up their empty beers bottles and took them into the kitchen to throw in the recycling bin. Brian had had two or three drinks, while Dom had settled for one, not wanting to compromise himself for the drive home with his daughter, even if it was only a couple of blocks over.

"You got plans tomorrow?" Brian asked when he came back into the room, watching as Dom carefully lifted up his daughter, draping the blanket over her as he rested her head on his shoulder.

"Nah," Dom shook his head, his voice quiet so as not to disturb Hadley. "I think I'm going to spend the day at home, just cleaning up and spend the day with my girl. What about—" Dom was cut off by the loud ringing of the landline in the corner of the room. He raised an eyebrow at Brain questioningly, turning his body slightly to try and shield Hadley from the shrill ringing. "Who you got calling this late?"

"Don't know," Brian shrugged as he walked over to the phone. "Actually," he laughed. "It's probably Jesse, reporting on his date." Dom grinned. "Twenty bucks he bailed on her."

"Twenty bucks _she_ bailed on _him_ , when he asked her to blow him in the back row of the cinema," Dom laughed.

"Good point." Brian hit the loud speaker button on the phone console.

"Brian here," he answered. There was loud music playing in the background and shouting and the men exchanged looks.

"Brian!" Came a shout and Dom let out a snort as he realized that it was his sister.

His very drunk sister.

"Brian—baby, can you pick me up?!" Mia slurred and Dom shook his head, Brian laughing as he leaned closer to the phone to talk into the speaker.

"Yeah, babe. Where are you?" He asked.

"Um," Mia went quiet for a moment, or at least, as quiet as someone could be when they got distracted by background noise and started singing along to the music in the background.. "At _Agenda_."

"Okay. I can be there in about twenty minutes—" Suddenly there was scuffle and a couple of muffled voices and then there was another person on the line.

"Brian! _Brian_ ," the voice sung out, slurring the name and clearly drunk as well. "You're the man who's making my best friend so happy!"

Dom's body froze as he recognized the voice.

A voice he hadn't heard in years.

"Wait, who is this?" Brian asked, grinning, unaware of Dom's reaction.

"This is Letty!" Came the reply and Brian's eyes widened, almost comically, as he turned and looked over at his friend, who's body was completely still, holding his daughter in his arms. "You know, the best friend that's just moved back?" Dom was staring directly at the phone, his lips tight, and Brian let out a sharp breath through his teeth. He reached over, and quickly ended the call, silence falling between them.

 _Ooh, okay, so I'm going to take a minute to gush about Aaron Taylor-Johnson. OMG. So I thought he was kind of geeky cute in_ Kick Ass _and then he had this incredible body in_ Kick Ass 2, _and then I saw him in_ Godzilla _and was like daaaaaaaaamn. Then_ Avengers: AoU _came out with the accent and the dyed hair and fuck me, my ovaries. *Swoon* Fuck, he is beautiful. Then I went back and watched_ Savages _which is now one of my favourite movies and he is so, so, so,_ SO _bangin' hot in that. You all need to join in my love fest with him._

 _Oh, and the other thing that has made me happy over the past few weeks!_ Trainwreck _with Amy Schumer is incredible. I think me and my friend were the loudest ones in the cinema, pissing ourselves laughing and yelling at the screen. Anyway, you need to check the movie out. It's amazing._

 _Remember, for a review you pretties get a preview of the next chapter._


	6. Chapter 6

_I intended to update a while ago, I've had everything written I just needed to edit etc etc. But then, if you're friends with me on FB you'll already know, my hubby went and fucked up his ankle. He broke his fibular and tore all the ligaments in his tibia, and has been in hospital for the past couple of days. Only just had his surgery yesterday and finally home today. So, this is hastily edited, I apologize for any mistakes._

"Listen, man, I think it would be best if you weren't here when I get back with the girls," Brian said, hoping he didn't sound too abrupt. Dom just gave him a narrow eyed look and purposefully made himself more comfortable in his armchair. Brian let out a frustrated groan and looked between the phone in his hand the Cuban opposite him. "Dom, come on, man. Mia is drunk off her ass, but she will still throw me outta the house if she thinks this is my fault."

"It _is_ your fault," Dom said stonily. "Shouldn't have put the phone on loud speaker." Brian's eyes widened at the lack of empathy and then he let out a huff as he snatched up is keys from the coffee table and headed out the door. "Damn Toretto's," he muttered under his breath as he made his way to his car. He was reversing out of the driveway and still mumbling angrily under his breath a few seconds later.

He loved Mia, and he loved Dom, but god; when those two were on opposing sides, all hell could break loose.

"All over a girl," Brian sighed as he reached over to turn up the radio. He had never met Letty, he had only every heard about her from everyone—everyone _except_ Dom. She was Mia's, and all the boys at the garage seemed to love her, but he had never got the full story behind her leaving. From what he understood, Mia and Dom's parents had passed away, Dom and Letty had then broken up, and she had ditched the lot of them and gone to Uni a few weeks later. In his books, that sort of painted Letty as the bad guy—especially give the downward spiral that Dom had fallen into when Brian had first come onto the scene.

But Mia had always said that it was complicated, and that even she didn't know the full story. Brian pressed his lips together as he came into the main city and had to concentrate on not hitting any of the drunk club-goers who were stumbling onto the street. He turned down the second street on his left and pressed his foot slowly onto the brake as he approached the karaoke bar that Mia preferred.

And there was his woman.

Brian couldn't stop the smile that stretched over his face as he came to a stop and took in Mia. She was wearing a silver glittering dress that made her tits look amazing and these heels that made her legs go on for days.

He was one lucky man.

"Hey, baby!" Mia cried out as she saw him. She said something over her shoulder, probably calling the other girls, and then walking toward his car. Rosa appeared first, wearing jeans and a flashy top, and then two girls followed—Gisele and Letty, he assumed. He had only seen photos of Letty, and she had always looked like a tomboy, but that was nothing like the girl he was seeing now.

She had a sleek purple and black bandage dress on that barely reached her thighs, with her long black hair and fringe straightened. She was giving her companion a run for her money with who was wearing more make up.

"Babe, this is Gisele," Mia said as she opened the door and looked over her shoulder at the gorgeous, Israeli girl who waved her fingers at him. "And this is Letty," she nodded over at the other girl and Letty grinned back at him. Brian gave them both smiles before looking back at Mia and remembering that he needed to talk to his girlfriend.

"Hey, Mi," Brian tried to get her attention, but she was laughing and saying something to Rosa. "Hey, Mi," he repeated as the doors opened and the drunk girls fell in. "Mi—"

"I love this song!" Mia announced and turned up the radio and started wiggling in the front passenger seat as an old Janet Jackson song came through the speakers. Letty and the two girls in the back all started singing, and Brian knew he didn't stand a chance at getting a word in edgewise. He sighed as he flicked on his indicator and navigated his way back to the main road that wound its way up the hill to his home. When they came to a stop at a set of traffic lights, Mia's hand reached over and started massaging his upper thigh.

They look she was giving him through batted eyelashes was positively sinful, and Brian could _kill_ Dom for the evening he was going to be deprived of.

As soon as they pulled down their street, Mia's hand tensed on his leg when she saw Dom's car on their front lawn and her face turned to stone.

"Brian," Mia began and he gave her a pained look.

"Ooh, guys!" Letty called from the back seat. "Are we almost there? I think G needs some fresh air." She looked outside and recognized the scenery and let out a sigh of relief. "I told you that those onion rings were a bad idea with the Long Island Ice Tea you were throwing back." Gisele just groaned pitifully in response. Brian pulled the car into the driveway and killed the engine, looking worriedly over his shoulder.

"I'd really rather that she didn't puke all over the backseat of my car," Brian winced as Gisele made a retching noise. Rosa patted her back comfortingly, her mothering side coming out, while Letty practically fell out of the car, attempting to steady herself.

"Shit," she stated, looking up at the house. "This place looks exactly the same." Mia was getting out of the car as well, and trying to slid inside unnoticed when Letty gasped. "Dude," her eyebrows widened. "Is that your baby, Mi?" She shot a smirk over at Brian. "I'm guessing it's not yours, given what you're driving."

"Hey," Brian interjected, but he couldn't stop the smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth. He could see why Dom had liked this girl—she was pretty much on the same level as him. "There is nothing wrong with my car."

"Of course not," Letty cooed, and Brian rolled his eyes good naturedly. She hobbled over to the car, her heels sinking into the soft grass. Brian and Mia exchanged long looks, the youngest Toretto looking a whole lot more sober as they nervously watched Letty touch her hands to the car and look it over. She looked in the windows and then jerked away, her hands dropped to her sides as though she had been scalded.

"That's not your car," she began. "That's—"

"Letty!" Gisele called out pitifully from where Rosa was trying to hold the tall girl up. Letty muttered under her breath as she walked over to her nauseous looking friend.

"You're so classy, G," Letty murmured and Gisele just moaned in response. Mia was about to comment on how the tables had turned, given it used to be Mia holding Letty up after a night out, but then...Then the front door to the house opened.

Letty froze.

Rosa let out a nervous giggle.

Brian took a weary step backwards.

"Letty," Dom uttered, looking directly at her, seemingly oblivious to everyone. Letty had been trying to work herself up to this moment—it was unavoidable. It was always going to happen. But there really wasn't anyway to completely prepare herself to face the love of her life that she had lost several years before.

"Uh," Letty cleared her throat awkwardly as her brain scrambled for something to say. "Uh, Dom—"

"Oh, god," Gisele suddenly grunted before doubling over and emptying the contents of her stomach on the driveway, some of it splashing on Letty's legs. Everyone sprung into action. Dom turned back inside, Letty and Rosa pulled back Gisele's long hair and steadied her, while Brian and Mia tried to clear a path leading into the house.

"Shit, girl," Letty was muttering as she rubbed her hand up and down Gisele's back. "You sure know how to break the ice."

"I try," Gisele groaned as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Rosa and Letty helped her inside and Letty lead the way down to the bathroom. They propped her beside the toilet and then Rosa nodded at her leg.

"You might want to clean yourself up as well," she noted. Letty looked down at her bare legs that had been splattered with throw up. She swallowed hard and made a face.

"That's gross," she stated.

"Sorry," GIsele moaned out before retching again. Letty walked back out into the hall, feeling nervous all over again now that she didn't have a distraction. Mia was in the kitchen and gave her a worried smile. Letty hoped her expression gave away nothing.

"Did you have an old rag or cloth or something?" She asked her childhood friend.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Mia walked over to the cupboard near the sink and tossed it over to her. Letty wiped down her leg and screwed up the rag. "Oh, just throw it away," Mia nodded over to the bin in the corner of the room. "And you can have a shower," she added.

"Once G is done worshipping the porcelain throne," Letty smirked.

"Is she walked that bad?" Mia asked with a tilt of her head.

"She hardly ever drinks," Letty grinned and shook her head. "She's kind of a light weight." Mia smiled in response and then they both fell quiet. The carefree atmosphere had disappeared the instant they had realized Dom was home and Mia actually felt a lump in her throat.

She hoped like hell it wasn't always going to be like this forever.

"Is he still here?" Letty suddenly asked, not needing to name who she was talking about for Mia to know.

"Uh, yeah, I think—" there was a roar of an engine outside and Mia winced. "That would be a no." Letty pursed her lips and nodded. Tha was probably a good thing. Letty was pretty drunk and any conversation that took place now probably wouldn't lead anywhere good. "I'm sorry, Let, I didn't know he was going to be here—"

"No, no, it's fine!" Letty quickly assured her. "Anyway, it was going to happen at some point." Mia nodded, chewing on her lower lip.

"Anyway, um, we've got you and Gisele in the spare room—"

"The one I always used to sleep in?" A smile pulled at the corners of Letty's mouth and Mia shot her a smirk.

"When you weren't sneaking into Dom's room," Mai shot back at her. Letty rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, but there was a small smile on her face. She nodded once and headed toward the lounge to head up the stairs. She wasn't looking where she was going and nearly face planted by tripping over a pink stuffed bunny that was on the ground.

Mia had been so careful before she had gone out—hiding any and all evidence of Hadley. That was definitely something that Dom needed to discuss with Letty.

But obviously Dom had dropped it on her way out.

Letty stopped and stooped down, picking up the stuffed toy and turning it over in her hands. She glanced over her shoulder at Mia, taking in her friends stricken expression.

"It's okay, Mi," Letty murmured, suddenly feeling far too sober. "I know about Hadley."

 _Reviews are love, let me know what you think x_


	7. Chapter 7

_I was surprised I managed to get this written so quickly. I think I was so worried that I wouldn't have it up within the two weeks that I rushed it all. Sorry about any mistakes! I did try to edit it all, but I'm so, so busy, and I just wanted to get it all up._

 _This is one of my favourite stories to write. And because I've come to a bit of a writing block and I want to get some more ideas flowing, I've decided I'm going to choose a couple of reviews to do prompts for, if that's something you guys are into! The prompts are just for oneshots, and_ won't _be done straight away, just letting you know. Hopefully within the next month, maybe two, but I will get them done! Let me know if it's something you're interested in :)_

 _Oh yes, I also don't own the name of the accounting firm_ Deloitte's. _It's one of the biggest ones over here in NZ._

So maybe their first meeting hadn't gone as well as it could—but at least it was over with now. Maybe next time, since their first face-to-face meeting was now done, things would be a little bit easier.

She wasn't certain of that at all, but she could be tentatively hopeful.

"Okay, so I think that maybe we need to re-evaluate this," Letty stated as she screwed up her nose and watched Gisele and Han Seoul-Oh tumbled down onto the couch that was only just pushed inside their new apartment. She raised both eyebrows as she looked down at the couple that were now making out. "I have no problem with spraying both of you down with cold water," she stated as she reached for her water bottle.

"Okay, okay, peace," Gisele grinned as she rolled off her boyfriend. Letty wasn't going to bring it up in front of Han, because she knew that was the last thing that was needed when in a relationship with someone—bringing a third person in who knew all the dirty secrets. But she was definitely going to revisit her conversation with Gisele as to why exactly the pair weren't moving in with each other.

They had been dating for almost three years now, and Letty had no doubt that they were going to have many years to come.

"You know your boss has a thing for you, right, Letty?" Han said as he pushed the couch into place. Gisele was now standing in the doorway of the lounge and shook her head, pointing to the opposite wall. Han grumbled under his breath, but bent back down and pushed the couch across the carpeted floor. Letty was ignoring the pair of them as they contemplated her non-existent love life. "I don't even work with you guys and I know it."

"You just listen and agree with everything Gisele says so that you can get some nookie later," Letty replied as she leaned over the box to pull out the next lot of plates, which were carefully wrapped in newspaper.

"Not true!" Gisele protested.

"So true," Gisele responded with a smirk. "You know that yellow dress you brought for New Years?" Han's eyes widened behind Gisele as he realized where the conversation was heading, and he shook his head at Letty furiously. "Han doesn't like it."

"What?!" Gisele whipped around, fixing her boyfriend with a wounded look. Han's face quickly melted into a placating smile.

"I love that dress on you, babe," Han assured, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. "I just sort of feel that, maybe, sometimes, um, I feel as though I'm walking around next to someone as blinding as the sun." Gisele and Han continued to...Debate the matter, rather loudly, about just how bright her dress was as Letty smiled in satisfaction, the attention shifted from herself.

Owen Shaw was not a subject that she liked to discuss.

Pretty much like everything else in her personal life.

Did his smile make her a little weak-kneed? Sometimes, yeah.

Did she think that he was handsome? Devastatingly so.

Did she melt when he spoke in that incredible drawl of his? Fucking aye.

But the only people she had been with over the past few years had been one night stands or guys she had only gone out with a couple of times. She honestly didn't _want_ a serious relationship right now. She had great friends, she loved her job—she didn't need anything else in her life right now.

She'd done serious—she had done that pretty damn early on in her life.

And she had been so incredibly lucky, even if it hadn't ended on the best terms, because it had been everything that a first love should be. It was beautiful, and it was heart breaking, she had laughed and she had cried. It had taken her a long time to get over it—hell, she still had a piece of her heart that belonged exclusively to Dom. Everything between them had been fast and hard. They had fallen together when she was about sixteen when they had first got together. It was one of the weekends when the Toretto's were out of town and Letty, as usual, was staying over with them. The boys sneaked the two girls out to the street races and then to a party afterwards. Dom had gotten pretty drunk, while Letty was still at a stage where she hadn't liked the bitter taste of beer, so she had looked after him when they got back home. He had kissed her in the bathroom, and then proceeded to pass out in the bath. It had sort of just blossomed from that point.

She had absolutely resented him when he had broken up with her and pushed her away, but after years of perspective she had begun to understand why he had done it.

They had also been such good friends before they had started going out. They had originally worried about the transition—that they might cross a line that they couldn't comeback from. That their friends wouldn't approve of them—that their families wouldn't approve of them.

Thinking back on all of that now seemed so long ago.

"Hey, babe," Gisele was standing next to her suddenly and Letty blinked as she realized had been standing stationary with a stack of plates in her hands for a good few minutes. She shook her head and forced a smile. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Letty said. Gisele didn't look convinced but the Latina wasn't going to start some in depth, heart-to-heart without any alcohol in her system. She looked over at the lounge and frowned at where Gisele had instructed Han to move the couch. "You realize that in the afternoon the sun is going to be directly in our eyes and we're not going to be able to see the TV?" She stated as she put down the plates and headed into the adjoining lounge. Han was happy to return to moving, and Letty was glad for the distraction.

Gisele watched the two of them with her lips pursed, knowing full well that Letty wasn't okay. And she doubted that it had anything to do with Owen Shaw. Likely to do with Dom and his baby, Hadley.

* * *

"Hey, my darling girl," Dom murmured, looking down from the kitchen table at his daughter, who had crawled along the floor and was staring intently at him. "What is it?" Hadley let out a noise that sounded like a laugh and started babbling away. Dom grinned down at her and reached down to hold out a hand to her. Hadley stared intently at him as she tried to pull herself into a standing position. He helped her along, gripping her arms gently and then pulling her upwards. Hadley grinned proudly, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, blowing a bubble with her spit. "Daddy's gotta do some work, okay? Maybe we could put you into jumper, aye?" Hadley just continue to grin and get lost in her baby talk.

Dom picked his daughter up, and took her over to the jolly jumper that was set up in the doorway of the kitchen, so that he would be able to work and keep an eye on her at the same time. Hadley loved her jumper, kicking out her legs out and waving her arms around, and it was a good way to keep her distracted while he worked. It also helped to get her ready for afternoon nap.

He went back to the books that he had laid out on the table. His laptop was also set up, iTunes up and softly playing a Breaking Benjamin track. Hadley kept herself entertained, bouncing away as he balanced out the accounts for the last week. Mia usually helped him with the books, but she was prepping for her final exams over the next few weeks, and he didn't want to make her feel more pressured. Especially when she him such a big favour by looking after Hadley through the week, most days. Day care prices were crazy, and he was definitely going to feel the financial blow when Mia started full time work.

"Hey," came a voice from the doorway and Dom looked up with a start, his sister standing there was a slightly sheepish smile on her face.

"Hey, Mi," Dom gave her a smile as she came into the kitchen area. She dropped a kiss to Hadley's head, drawing a giggle and a grin from her niece before sitting down at the table, across from Dom. He pushed away the papers he was working on and folded his arms loosely.

"Look, Dom, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry," Mia began, anxiously licking her lips. "I didn't want things to happen for you and Letty like they had—I wanted you guys to see each other for the first time somewhere nice, preferably just the two of you, maybe with some music going—"

"Mia," Dom interrupted her with a slight glare. "First of all, there's no way in hell me and Letty are getting back together. You should know that." Mia just shrugged, not about to agree with her brother on something that she disagreed with, but not wanting to start a bigger argument. "And second of all, it's fine. It was always going to happen, and it's probably better that we get it over with sooner rather than later. She's your best friend, of course you were going to go out with her. It was my fault for disrupting the evening by not leaving when Brian asked me to."

"I know, I know," Mia pursed her lips and let out a sigh through her nose. "But I'm still sorry. I feel like I should have told you." Dom gave a one shouldered shrug and looked over at Hadley, just watching her bounce up and down and suck on her fingers made him feel better. Something about the innocence on his daughters face and the love in her eyes that made his mind settle.

"How's your studying going?" Dom asked, changing the subject.

"It's going well," Mia nodded. "I've don't have too long before I sit the exam, and then I'm taking that job with _Deloitte's_."

"That's great, Mi," Dom smiled at her.

"I'm gonna miss my time with my favourite girl," Mia said, pouting as she looked over at her niece. "Are you going to put her full time in day care?"

"Don't really have much other choice," her brother winced. "I don't want to, but she can't come to the garage," he let out a laugh. "Or at least until she's old enough to understand when I tell her not to put everything in her mouth."

"I remember those photos that mum and dad have of us at that gaarage," Mia smiled. "You were sitting on top of dad's charger and I was—"

"Trying to eat a screw driver," Dom let out a laugh.

"That's the one," Mia grinned over at her brother. She sobered up quickly and let out a deep breath. "As much as I hate to say it, have you considered trying her mum—"

"Not going to happen, Mi," Dom quickly said, cutting that thought right out of the air. "Hadley's the only good thing that's ever come of her, and I'm not going to bring that kind of influence into my daughters life."

"You realize there might be a day that comes where you don't have a choice in that matter," she said quietly.

"Maybe," Dom rubbed his hand over his head and looked back over at his daughter. "But we're not there just yet."

 _Okay! Two things that have made me happy! Ohmygod, I'm completely in love with_ The Good Wife. _Completely head over heels. I'm honestly running out of things to watch that I like, so I went out and brought the first season and shit. I finished the first season already and I've brought the second and third. Oh yeah, if any of you have suggestions about good TV shows? Preferably a couple of seasons in so that I have more than just a few episodes to watch ;)_

 _Second thing is_ I Was Made For Loving You _by Ed Sheeran and Tori Kelly. I am so completely in love with it! I love everything by Ed Sheeran and I'm definitely starting to feel the same way about Tori Kelly._

 _The last thing; a few of you were upset that there was no preview for the last chapter. So they're back! A preview for a review x_


	8. Chapter 8

_Heeeey, guys. This kinda sorta might be a filler chapter of sorts? I'm sorry! But this is my third week of weekly updates, that counts for something, right? But it sets up for them meeting again_ properly, _and I promise that they're actually going to have a talk and shit not too far away, I put it in even sooner than I expected, so that is coming!_

"Hey, Leticia?" Owen Shaw called from inside his office. "Did you finish the background check for Marcus Sherman's wife?" Letty looked through the manila folders that were stacked up on her desk, picking one up and walking toward the office. Her heels clicked away on the wooden floors, and she ran her fingers through her hair as she walked inside. She handed it over to him and he gave her a quick smile before looking down and flicking through the papers.

"She had an addiction to prescription drugs a few years ago, she really shouldn't have been in a house with that much shit in the cupboards," Letty said, her hip jutting out slightly to the side as she waited for his response.

"This is good work," he told her. "How buried was this?"

"Pretty buried," Letty shrugged.

"This is good," Owen nodded thoughtfully as he pulled out another shiny piece of paper with a photograph printed on it. "And who's this?"

" _That_ is a disgruntled ex-employee...He was fired when Sherman slept with him," Letty replied, a smirk started to pull up the corners of her mouth.

"Chloe Sherman?" He asked.

"Nope," she shook her head. "Marcus." Owen's eyes widened in surprise and he let out a short laugh.

"As if we needed any more motive to add to this," he stated as he looked at a couple more pictures in the folder. "More lovers?" Letty nodded and he glanced back down. "Wife walks in her husband, screwing some male who looks about half his age. I would definitely add that to the reasons why she might want him killed." Letty nodded, taking a few steps back, toward her desk. "Good work, Leticia," he said.

"No problem," she flashed him a smile before turning and heading toward her desk. She was wearing a dark purple blouse and a black pencil skirt, which was pretty much her customary outfit for work. That was completely different from what she would be seen in a couple of years ago, but her style had also advanced from the ripped sweatpants and grease stained wife beaters.

Owen approved, his eyes drifting down to her ass.

"You want to go on lunch? We can go down to Starbucks?" Gisele asked, walking over from where Letty was typing away at her lap top.

"Or to the Burger King?" Letty grinned.

"Or to the Starbucks?" Gisele wheedled with a pout. Letty was used to this though and she pulled her wallet out of the top drawer of her desk.

"Or to the Burger King," Letty concluded. The two girls linked arms and headed toward the elevator on the left hand side of the building. Gisele started telling Letty about how the delivery guy was starting to make a bunch of extra stops on their floor and asking specifically for her. The guy seemed sweet enough, but Gisele was the type of girl who attracted a lot of men, and she was a taken woman now. "Oh, yeah, it's such a shame you're so good looking," Letty told her sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

"It's a blessing and a curse, really," Gisele shrugged and made a face. They walked out of the building and started down the street. "By the way, Owen has looked at your ass at least six times in the past hour."

"Oh, shut up," Letty muttered, elbowing her lightly in the side.

Letty had no idea how she would have made it through the past few years without Gisele.

Mia was always going to be her best friend, but Gisele was definitely a close second.

When she stared University, it a completely new place, in a new environment, not knowing _anyone_ and feeling completely broken, Gisele had been there. She hadn't treated Letty like she would break, like some of the other students were doing; avoiding her because she looked as though she was going to snap or cry. She had pulled her out to a couple parties, taking her to a motorbike race, forced her to eat ice cream until she was ready to throw up.

Gisele didn't have to do it.

But she said that Letty looked strong, she just looked like she needed someone to remind her of that.

They had moved in together in the second year of Uni, and hadn't regretted a thing.

It had been almost six months after they had moved in together before Letty had even mentioned Dom. Gisele had said she guessed it was a guy who had hurt her, but Letty had tried to explain that it wasn't like he had hurt her on purpose...He didn't cheat on her, or get tired of her and toss her to the side. He had every reason in the world to feel as though he couldn't handle a girlfriend right then; but when he had told her that it was over, he had _broken_ her.

And then when she had found out about Hadley, it was Gisele who eventually got her back out of the house.

So despite the fact that Gisele loved wearing heels, and she would rather a nicoise salad over a triple cheeseburger, and she couldn't tell a six cylinder from an eight, Letty absolutely loved her.

"Okay, I'm going to have to go with the kids cheeseburger," Gisele muttered, scrunching up her nose as she looked up at the menus for Burger King. Letty just rolled her eyes and looked her over. "Whatever," Gisele shot at her for the unsaid judgement. "Maybe the double cheeseburger."

"With fries," Letty added with a smirk.

"And onion rings," Gisele relented with a grin.

"Sounds perfect," Letty stepped forward as they made it to the front of the line, and placed her order with the teenager behind the counter. The girls went out for lunch most days, and took turns as to who was paying. They found themselves a clean table as they waited for their order. Gisele was fiddling with a napkin, folding it easily into an origami swan and then putting it in the middle of the table. "That's such a chick thing to do," Letty grinned at the perfectly folded napkin. "I can't even set the table right."

"Well, I'm gonna make someone a perfect wife one day," Gisele winked.

"Ooh, someone?" Letty gave her a mock look of surprise. "Didn't realize you were contemplating anyone other than Han."

"Gotta keep him on his toes," Gisele grinned and then thanked the waitress who came over and put the two trays in front of the girls. They fell quiet for a couple of minutes as they started eating, before Gisele finished her fry and looked over at Letty. "Are you doing okay?" Letty paused, halfway through a mouthful of burger. "I mean, you just saw Dom for the first time, and then you saw Hadley...I mean, if you were a normal person, then you would be shaking and dribbling in a corner."

"So attractive," Letty rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, make jokes, blow off my question," Gisele growled. "But I'm your friend and I demand you talk to me." She stabbed her fry into the sauce on her tray to emphasize her point. Letty sighed and finished her mouthful, putting her burger down.

"It was...It was weird, okay? You happy?"

"Weird?" Gisele pushed.

"Yeah, weird," Letty swallowed hard. "I mean. I didn't see Hadley. I just saw her toy, although that's...That's just around the corner. But Dom..."

"He was better looking than you said he was," Gisele added. Letty gave her a small smile.

"Yeah, he's pretty damn good looking," she replied. "I think he's just gotten better looking as he got older. Got more muscles too." Gisele didn't say anything as Letty stared down at her tray of food and ran her fingers through her hair. "I was not ready to see him, G. God, it just brings everything back. Mia brings back the good, the stuff that doesn't hurt. But Dom brings back back. The bad—which I can deal with—and then the good, which is what fucking hurts worse than anything else." Gisele reached out and squeezed her friends hand sympathetically.

"You wanna go get FroYo after work?" She asked. Letty managed a grin.

"Sounds amazing," she responded. She was about to take another bite of her burger when her phone started vibrating in her pocket. Letty sighed and quickly wiped her hands down with a napkin. "I'm never going to be able to finish my burger," she muttered as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it up to her air. "Hey."

"Hey, Letty," Mia's voice came down the line, and Letty's body relaxed.

"Hey, girl. How you doing?"

"I'm good, good," she replied. "Look, we still have family barbecue's on Sunday, like dad always did, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," Letty couldn't stop her smile.

"Well, we want you to come," Mia said, sounding a little anxious.

"We?"

"Yeah, me, Brian, Rosa—the boys are dying to see you," Mia replied. Letty stayed quiet and Mia knew who she was really asking about. "Dom is fine. He knows that you're family, and even though things between you and him aren't great right now...He will be there as well, and he'll play nice."

"Okay, uh, yeah," Letty nodded, an automatic response even though Mia couldn't see her.

"Yeah?" Mia sounded a lot happier.

"Yeah, I'll be there," Letty replied.

"And bring Han and Gisele," Mia said. "Everyone wants to meet them." Letty looked over at Gisele, who was staring back at her interestedly.

"Yeah, I'll make sure they're free," she said.

"Perfect, I'll see you then."

"Bye, Mi," Letty concluded, hitting the 'end call' button on her phone and putting it down on the table. Gisele was still looking at her and Letty rolled her eyes. "Were you attempting to eavesdrop?"

"Well it's not that hard when you can already hear half of the conversation. All I need to do is fill in the blanks," Gisele didn't look guilty at all. "So, what am I free for?"

"There was a Sunday lunch that Tony, Dom and Mia's dad, always used to put on. Mia just told me that they still do it. She wants me, you and Han to come," Letty said, still not sounding one hundred percent certain about her decision.

"That sounds like fun," Gisele smiled at her encouragingly.

"Yeah, it'll be a blast," Letty muttered.

 _So, guys. Reviews are love. You guys are pretty damn incredible, and the rest of you out there, following in the distance_ — _it only takes a couple of seconds to leave a few words and they just make me some happy on the inside ;) Let me know what you think. A review for a preview x_


	9. Chapter 9

_And in this chapter, we've got the meeting! And, as I've told a couple of you, it's stretched out over two chapters, and that's because there's a lot to fit in. Does that sound promising? ;) On with the chapter!_

"You got this," Gisele said to Letty as they walked up the footpath to the Toretto house, where Brian and Mia were now living. Gisele and Han had come in a separate car from Letty, and she had arrived a couple of minutes before then and was waiting for them to pull up behind them. "Just don't let on how much you're affected by it—be a hard ass."

"You talk too much," Han noted, nudging her in the side.

"Damn right you do," Letty huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. Gisele made a face at the pair of them as she reached the front door and rapped her knuckles against the wood. Letty glanced around the front yard. The barbecue was covered in meat and slices of onion, with a couple of beers scattered over the picnic table. She was about to warn Gisele to take a step back, but then thee door was swinging open and there were about ten people crammed into the kitchen.

"Welcome back!" Came the shouts of everyone in the room, their combined voices creating an almost deafening volume. Gisele stepped aside to let the group surround Letty and cover her in kisses and hugs. Han raised his eyebrows across at his girlfriend, who just grinned in response.

"Are you wearing make up?" Jesse scrunched up his nose. "You look like such a girl."

"That's because I _am_ a girl, ass swipe," Letty muttered, but her head was buried in his shoulder and she was grinning at the younger boys words.

"Yeah, douchebag," Leon rolled his eyes and grabbed Letty's hand, pulling her over to him and wrapping his arms around her and giving her a tight squeeze. "Good to have you back," he told her, before letting her go and passing her onto Vince. Mia and Rosa gave her hugs as well, even though they had already recently seen her.

"That's him," Gisele murmured as a man entered the kitchen, holding back a little in the doorway. Han nodded in recognition and then turned to smile at Mia, who was leaning into give him a greeting hug and kiss.

Letty swallowed hard as the attention purposefully shifted from her to Gisele and Han, probably to give her and Dom a second alone. God, he looked so good in jeans and a white wife beater. Letty had to swallow hard to try and keep her composure—Dom definitely looked a lot calmer than he had the other night.

"Hey," Letty managed to get out.

"Hey," Dom gave her a tight smile and leaned forward to give her a stiff, one armed hug. He smelt a little different, undoubtedly he was wearing a different type of cologne to what he had when he was nineteen. There was also a softer smell—a baby smell, and then there was the underlying scent that was Dom.

Just plain Dom.

 _That_ made her heart ache.

"We should probably get back out there before the food gets cold," Vince piped up. The boys all shouted in agreement and headed out the back door, dragging Han along with him. Dom looked as though he was going to join them, but then there was a squeal and a cry from the lounge and he disappeared through the doorway. Letty felt like she was frozen to the spot as both Mia and Gisele gave her an encouraging nod. She followed after Dom, stopping a few feet away from where he was crouching beside his daughter.

She was absolutely beautiful.

She had these big brown eyes that were framed with these incredibly long eyelashes, and this thick mop of hair, which was beginning to curl at the ends.

Letty thought that she might actually be sick.

"Oh," Dom gave her a surprised look when he saw her squatting behind him, and swallowed hard before looking down at his daughter. "Letty, this is Hadley," he looked down at Hadley, his face instantly softening. "Hadley, baby, this is Letty." The little girl turned her big eyes up toward Letty, who smiled down at her.

"Hey, Hadley," she said, her voice shaky but soft as she reached out for the girl with an open palm. Hadley looked up at her quizzically for a few seconds before reaching down to pat Letty's hand with her own warm palm. She let out a giggle and pulled back, throwing her arms out to Dom. She was so small that even with both of her hands on either side of Dom's arm didn't make it all the way around. He grinned down at her and made a face, which set her off in another round of giggles. Letty looked between the two of them with a small smile at how natural the two of them looked together.

It was a sweet scene.

And yet she was now almost _positive_ that she was going to be sick.

"She's going to be walking soon," Dom said, almost as though to himself. "And that's going to be scary." Letty watched for another minute before standing up and smoothing out her shirt and turning back to look toward the kitchen where Mia, Gisele and Rosa were bustling around and pretending not to pay any attention to the pair. The key word being 'pretending', and not very well either. Letty didn't have a cute little bundle to distract her like Dom did, and she could see right through their charade.

"She's gorgeous, right?" Mia sounded completely head over heels in love with her niece.

"She's beautiful," Letty agreed, quickly turning away from the touching scene in the lounge and distracting herself by helping Mia with the salad. "I never really imagined Dom being good with kids," she mumbled as she went to work, shredding a couple leaves of lettuce. The other woman in the kitchen exchanged looks but they didn't say anything.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon went by without a hitch. Letty and Dom managed to avoid each other without looking too obvious about it. Han and Gisele fit in well with Letty's old team and it didn't take long before everything fell back into place, like it had been all those years ago.

Leon and Jesse were still jackasses, going on loudly about the girls they had been with last night, comparing conquests. Vince attempted to join the lewd conversations, but received a slap upside the head from Rosa. Dom didn't join in at all, which was definitely different. Even though he never disrespected Letty like that, he would still jibe the other boys on.

To be honest, Dom didn't do all that much talking at all.

Then again, it's not like this was easy—especially for him and Letty.

By the time six o'clock rolled around, Letty was feeling a lot more comfortable. Han and Gisele left for their dinner reservation, and Vince and Rosa headed off shortly after. It was actually pretty adorable to see gruff ol' Vince completely doting on the curl haired girl. She had known Rosa back in school, but they hadn't run in the same circles, but she had always seemed nice.

Clearly, Vince had branched out.

"Come on, bro," Leon nudged Dom's arm. "Been a while since I kicked your ass at GTA." Dom rolled his eyes in a long suffering way and didn't look as though he was too keen to get up from the comfortable outdoor couch that he was sitting in. Hadley had been keeping him busy for most of the day, she seemed over tired and just wanted her daddy. It was almost seven, and Mia had just managed to get her down to sleep.

"You scared?" Jesse teased, joining in with Leon's teasing. Dom raised his eyebrows at the pair.

"What are you guys—twelve?" He asked, but there was a grin creeping onto his face.

"You guys go inside," Mia told them, giving Brian a push with her hip. "Me and Letty can clean up." The boys—including Dom—including took the opportunity to get out of the dishes and headed up into the house. The sun was sinking and the temperature was cooling down as Mia and Letty began picking up all the plates and utensils. Despite the amount of food that had been put out, everything had gone except for one piece of crusty bread, which Letty snagged and took a bite out of.

"You feeling better?" Mia asked, her voice low as the two girls started scraping the scraps off the plates and dump it into the bin.

"That obvious, huh?" Letty gave her a rueful grin and Mia rolled her eyes at her best friend.

"You're kidding, right?" Mia laughed. "I was there when you and Dom were caught making out in the bathroom by dad before you told him you were together—you had the same face as you had when walking up today." Letty cringed and ran her hand through her hair, a nervous habit that she had picked up over the years. Mia let out another laugh and slung an arm around Letty's shoulder and leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek. "It's gonna be fine. I'm so fucking glad that you're back!"

"Language, girl," Letty muttered. "There's a kid in the house now."

"That's why we have a swear jar," Mia winced. "Don't tell Brian."

"You know my mouth is dirtier than yours. I'll probably end up paying more than you," Letty made a face and then glanced toward the stairs. "I'm just gonna pee and then I can help with the dishes."

"Anything to get out of washing!" Mia accused as Letty headed toward the stairs.

"My mama told me to stick to my strengths," Letty called over her shoulder with a smirk. "And I'm a pro dryer!" Mia grumbled under her breath as her friend disappeared upstairs. It was only half a minute before Dom wandered into the kitchen, an empty beer bottle in his hand, Mia glanced at him sideways as she plunged her hands into the hot soapy water and started scrubbing at the first plate.

"What are you creeping for?" The youngest Toretto asked, breaking the silence after a few minutes.

"I'm not creeping," Dom protested as he dropped his glass beer bottle into the recycling bin and then grabbed another one out of the fridge. Mia gave him a knowing look and his eyes widened defensively. "I'm not!" He repeated.

"Right," Mia muttered as she looked back at the dishes. Dom was cracking off the lid for his drink when he suddenly heard Hadley wails from upstairs. He sighed and put his beer down on the kitchen table. "Poor girl. She should probably go home so she can settle in for the night."

"Is that my baby's sisters way of kicking me out?" Dom joked and Mia rolled her eyes.

"Take it however you want," she sung out to him. Dom dropped a kiss to her forehead and then jogged up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He walked down the hallway to the end room, the door partially open and Hadley's cries sounding as though they were subsiding inside the dark room. Dom approached thee door and then froze as he heard a soft voice from inside.

"Hey, darling girl," Letty cooed, looking a bit hesitant as she approached the cot in the corner of the room. Hadley had pulled herself up to her feet and was hanging onto the side of the port-a-cot. She was swinging a little unsteadily on her chubby little legs, and she was blinking her wet, long eyelashes up at Letty. "I'm pretty sure you're meant to be asleep." Hadley had stopped crying and was just staring up at Letty with big, inquisitive eyes, her head tilted to the side.

Dom felt his heart thundering in his chest as Letty reached out one of her hands and Hadley smiled angelically, taking one hand off the railing and holding it out to the striking Latina. Letty seemed to make up her mind, because she closed the distance and picked the little girl up.

 _So, so, so, so? Do we like it?_

 _Did I do okay?_

 _Tell me what you think!_

 _Leave me a review, they make me happy :)_

 _And I'll send you a preview, if you want x_


	10. Chapter 10

_Quite a few people were looking forward to this chapter. Lots of questions about Hadley's name, who her mum is etc etc. I didn't want to drag things out to much with these guys talking. So here it is! I hope you enjoy it..._

Dom's heart was in his throat as he watched Letty and Haley together. Both of them had dark hair, caramel coloured skin and endless brown eyes—they could honestly be related. He shook his head harshly at that thought—that was _not_ where he could let his head go. It would just lead him down a path that he wouldn't be able to come back from. Hadley noticed him over Letty's shoulder and she let out a squeal.

"Da!" She said excitedly, jerking in Letty's arms, and the girl spun around, a stricken look on her face.

"Oh, shit, sorry! I, uh," Letty stammered, looking guilty as she then winced when she realized that she had sworn. "Oh, Jesus, sorry! Oh, shit, now I'm being blasphemous—I'm terrible at this," she finally sighed. Dom couldn't help the snort that escaped past his lips and he rubbed a hand over his shaved head to try and wipe away the grin.

"It's fine, it's fine," he assured her. "I'm really hoping that she doesn't remember anything she hears at this age—you should hear the things that Uncle Leon says around her." Hadley giggled as Dom came a couple of steps closer and she waved her arms out to him. Letty turned and passed the girl over, who instantly settled down as she rested her head against her daddys muscular chest, and let out a contented sigh. Letty licked her lips and rubbed them together nervously.

"You're amazing with her," she finally commented, crossing her arms over her chest. Dom gave her a small smile but there was something so heavy in his eyes—maybe almost a haunted look.

In fact, it had been in his eyes all day. Even when he was with Hadley, and his face got all soft and his mouth relaxed, his eyes still had the same weight behind them.

Letty hated it.

Seeing that look in his eyes made her body ache to hold him.

There was still strength and love there, but all of it was overshadowed.

"So, uh," Letty dug her fingers sharply into her own arm to try and centre her thoughts. She grasped for something to say, tilting her head to the side as she idly asked, "Where's Elena?" She could kicked herself as soon as she saw the reaction from Dom. His lips parted in surprise, and then tightened into a firm line, his whole body tensing at the name. She had already guessed they weren't together—she wasn't at family lunch on Sundays. You better be dying or dead not to be there. Plus, no one had mentioned anything about a missing person.

But then Letty realized her mistake as she saw the way Dom's eyes were like saucers, staring at her. Even Hadley could tell that something was wrong—she had pulled back from her father and was looking up at him worriedly, scrunching up his shirt in her tiny fist.

"How do you know about Elena?" Dom asked, his voice strained as his arms tightening around Hadley.

"Uh," Letty chewed down at her lower lip. She sighed and ran a hand over her forehead; figuring the truth was the best thing to go with, given Dom had always known when she was laying. It was something she had both loved and hated about him. "Birth records are available to the public, you just need to know where to look," she confessed. "I saw Elena's name on the registry. I don't know anything else about her, just her name and that Hadley was born in Palo Alto." Dom stared at her for a long time, as though he still didn't know how he was going to react, before giving a short nod.

"Almost as scary as the brainiac outside," he muttered, forcing out a small smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Scarier," Letty corrected him with the raise of an eyebrow. "This is my job now, remember? You should see how guilty I can make a jealous housewife look." That drew a snort from Dom—the second time she had made him laugh that evening, even if they were a little forced.

Girl still hadn't lost her touch.

"She's not in the picture," Dom said, his face quickly sobering up as he returned to the previous question. "Uh, I was only with her for a short amount of time and then we broke up and she moved out to Palo Alto with her sister. I didn't even know she was pregnant until a few weeks after baby was born," his words were bitter at this point and Hadley was reaching up her pudgy little arms to give him a cuddle him, sensing his discomfort.

"That's rough," Letty cringed, her heart going out to the man.

"She calls every now and then," Dom said, his voice slightly muffled by the way he had his head bent forward and his lips were brushing against Hadley's soft, downy hair. "Doesn't really ask about Hadley, and when she does, it's like an after thought." Letty glanced down at the girl, who was still snuggled in close to her father, and it was obvious from the way Dom was holding her; she was his lifeline. "I thought that it was best we just got back here, and she didn't want to come, so I left her there."

"You did the right thing," Letty murmured, but she assumed that he had been told that over and over again. "I mean—your job is here, your family is here—they're you're support system. You weren't being selfish or anything by coming back—you were doing the right thing by your daughter, and giving her the best opportunity at a good life, which is what being a father is about." Dom was watching her now, a blank look on his face. Letty swallowed hard, a whole new wash of awkwardness flooding over her.

What the fuck was she going on about?

She literally knew nothing about parenthood, and she knew about zero when it came to Dom's life now.

But Dom cracked a smile and Letty realized that more than just a child in his life had changed. If she had pried into his life and made comments about it before, he was likely to throw back a snarky remark or give her the cold shoulder. Clearly his patience had increased, probably something that came with teaching someone how to use a spoon properly.

"You know the worse part?" Dom asked, his voice gravelly as he looked at Letty.

"What's that?" She murmured.

"She didn't even have a name," Dom took in a harsh breath through his nose. "She was almost three weeks old and when I walked in, she was in this dirty onesie and her diaper was full and she hadn't been washed in ages—and she didn't even have a name." Dom's head dropped again, this time to press a kiss to the top of his daughters head. "El hadn't even thought about a name or filled in the birth certificate—eight months of being pregnant and she couldn't even think of a name?!" One of his hands moved from where it was resting against Hadley's back and pinched at the bridge of his nose. "I wanted her to have a name that meant something, that meant she was loved. And," he looked hesitant as his gaze met Letty's. "And the first place that my head went to was to you." Letty felt a hitch in her throat and she knew that her eyes were glassy with tears. She tried to clear the tense atmosphere that their discussion had created and let out a short laugh.

"And Leticia was too mainstream?' She joked lightly and was relieved when Dom gave her another smile.

"There's only room for one Leticia in my life," he told her, keeping his voice light but the meaning still abundantly clear.

This is definitely not what either of them had expected from the evening—Letty had been worried that they wouldn't even be able to go back to being friends after their history. However, she had underestimated him—and herself.

And she had definitely underestimated her quickly amounting affection for the adorable bundle in Dom's arms.

"We're going to be okay, yeah?" She asked, looking between Hadley, who now looked as though she was fast asleep, and Dom.

"Yeah," Dom nodded, that small, comforting smile still on his mouth. "Yeah, we are."

 _Anyway, thank you heaps for your support and reviews. There's still heaps of you following there in the background; come out, come out and let me know what you think! I'm nice, I promise._

 _Anyway, if you want a preview, let me know in your review. And if you wanted to talk about anything else, send me a PM! I can be damn lovely :) xx_


	11. Chapter 11

_If you haven't already listened to that_ do it! _You won't regret it. Oh yeah, and what do you guys think about Michelle's new role? Heaps of controversy already about it. Sigh...I apologize for any mistakes made!_

"Oi!" Gisele shouted out, but to no avail. Letty's legs were pumping up and down, her arms jolting at her side as she forced herself to continue. There was sweat dripping down her face and getting into her eyes, her hair stained damp, but she kept going. Gisele was a good few paces behind her, and the pretty Israeli groaned as she pushed her hair out of her face and followed after her friend. It wasn't until about twenty minutes later that Letty finally slowed down to a quick walk, before taking in a deep breath and dropping into the sand. She had clearly stopped far too quickly, because her stomach lurched, but she managed to hold down the bile. Gisele was smarter, continuing to walk in circles around her fallen friend. "Okay, so..." she took in a shaky breath through her nose. "That was fun."

"You said you wanted to come for a run with me," Letty mumbled in reply, rubbing her hand over her face, and then holding it over her eyes to block out the burning afternoon sun.

"Yeah, like a leisurely, we can gossip at this pace kind of run," Gisele shot back. "Not a never-ending, I'm never gonna be able to walk again kind of run!" Letty didn't reply as Gisele fell down onto the sand next to her friend. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Letty replied and Gisele just rolled her eyes and huffed.

"No, no," she shook her head. "We're not doing this."

"Doing what?" Letty attempted the whole clueless act but Gisele just rolled over so that she was laying on her stomach, sand sticking to the sweat on her back and legs.

"Pretending everything is a-okay when you're really dying inside, and attempting to take me with you," she once again steered the conversation back to the run from hell.

"You didn't have to come," Letty reminded her.

"You're my best friend and I wanted to spend time with you," Gisele said primly. The Latina let out a snort before finally rolling over and looking at her friend. From the expression on her friends face, she could see that she was serious, and there was only so long before Gisele held her down and threatened her with a _Dance Moms_ marathon unless she spilled her guts. "Dom, right? Dom and Hadley?"

"Of course it's Dom and Hadley," Letty rolled her eyes. "What do you think I am—a robot?"

"You definitely try to act that way sometimes," Gisele muttered.

"Hey," Letty protested, getting a smile in response. She shrugged and rolled her neck. "It was so much different from what I thought it would be..." she drifted off. "I mean, I didn't think we were going to fight and shit, but I didn't think that we were going to be so...I don't know. So open and easy?"

"It felt pretty tense to begin with," Gisele pointed out.

"It cleared up later on, I guess," Letty said. "Especially when he told me about Elena."

"Yeah, about that," there was a look of disgust on Gisele's face. "What kind of woman leaves her kid? And doesn't care?" Letty just shrugged in response. "You're kidding, right? Come _on_ , Letty. So maybe you and this guy aren't together now, but you guys _were_ , and you had known him for ages before then! He must of been in a real tailspin to end up with a woman like that."

"I didn't really talk too much about her, G," Letty finally said. "He said he was in a bad place, and she was there for him. Or they were both in a bad place—whatever the case! They're both young, and maybe she just wasn't ready."

"You're kidding, right?" Gisele snorted. "I'm not ready for kids, but if I got knocked up and I ended up popping one out, I wouldn't be dumping it on Han and then running for the hills." Letty shrugged again. "Okay, so no more talking about Elena. What about Hadley? That child is fucking adorable." That got a smile out of the Latina and she tightened her abdominals, pulling herself into a seated position and staring out over the waves crashing in on the beach.

"Yeah, she is," she agreed. "She's gonna have curly hair as well, you can see it in the way it's all wavy now. Dom and his dad have this crazy curly hair going on—that's why they both always had them shaved."

"Dom had curly hair?" Gisele laughed. "That's beautiful."

"His mum wouldn't let him cut it until he was about fifteen, even though he really wanted to do it when he was younger," Letty grinned as she remembered back almost ten years ago. "Mia was always so jealous, she wanted the curly hair, but I'm pretty sure she dodged a bullet. When we were about nine or ten she threw up the biggest tantrums when she had to have her hair brushed." Letty pulled her hair-tie from her pony tail and shook it out, running her fingers through it. "But yeah, she is absolutely gorgeous. She has Dom's hair, Dom's nose...Mia's eyes," she smiled as she tilted her head to the side. "And he seems like an incredible father."

"He does indeed," Gisele murmured, keeping her voice soft as she saw the faraway look in her friends eyes. "Did you ever think of him like that?" Letty snorted and rolled her eyes over to the girl next to her.

"You're kidding, right? I was, like, seventeen!" She cried out.

"So? If you're serious about someone it doesn't matter what age you are, you're gonna have those stupid day dreams," Gisele shrugged. Letty pursed her lips and let out a breath through her nose. "Yeah, yeah, I know you know what I'm talking about," she nudged Letty in the ribs.

"Okay," she sighed. "So, it came up once. It was a few months before we broke up, I was nineteen. It was during prep for final exams, so I was super stressed out and everything, which made complete sense after, when I talked to the doctor. I was late, ya know?" Gisele winced in sympathy. "And I didn't realize at first until Mia started talking about how she had cramps, and since we're cycle sisters I was sort of like what the fuck is going on? We took a test, and it was negative, and I couldn't get to the doctors for a while without missing any school and my parents finding out, so we were both freaking out. Me and Dom didn't really talk too much about what it would be like if I _was_ pregnant, but I thought about it a couple of times. I sort of thought he'd be good? But in ten years, sort of thing, not now. Anyway, I went to the doctor, who told me to stop panicking, it was probably just caused by stress and then I was making it worse because I was then stressing about not having it—you know how it was." Gisele nodded in agreement. "Anyway, so I got it a couple of days later and then that was that! We never talked about it again." Gisele pursed her lips and looked away, letting Letty have a minute to recover from her trip down memory lane. "Anyway—this is exactly what I _didn't_ want to do today! Can we just run?"

"You're shitting with me, right?" Gisele groaned. "We just ran like a hundred miles."

"Always so dramatic, G," Letty threw a smirk over her shoulder as she got to her feet, dusted the sand off her shorts and then took off at a steady jog again.

* * *

"What's up, bro?" Brian called as he walked into Dom's house like he owned the place, not bothering to knock. Mia was close behind him, along with Jesse. Dom looked from each of them to the next with an eyebrow raised.

"Uh," he began. "Hi?"

"I just came over because Mia said you had beer," Jesse stated as he walked toward the kitchen.

"Right," Dom rolled his eyes. "Help yourself."

"Thanks, bro," Jesse gave him a charming smile as he opened the fridge and pulled out a beer, cracking off the lid and taking a swallow.

"And what are the rest of you here for?" He turned to his sister and her boyfriend. Brian looked over at Mia, who pursed her lips and winced.

"We're just here to catch up—"

"It's an intervention, man," Jesse piped up as he came back into the dining room, interrupting Brian and grinning without a care in the world as he slung an arm around Dom's shoulders. Dom's eyebrows raised as he looked between the pair. "It's because you haven't been laid in some time, and we're starting to think it's a problem. See, when I'm having a dry spell like this, I find that the best thing to do is—"

"That is _not_ why we're here!" Mia snapped, narrowing her eyes at Jesse. The younger boy just shrugged unapologetically and dawdled into the lounge, where Hadley was sitting in her play pen. Dom's eyes were momentarily distracted by how adorable she looked, her eyebrows furrowed and her lower lip stuck out as she stared down at the toy in her hand and turning it over. But then she was distracted by Jesse coming over, and Dom turned back to the couple in front of him. "We just wanted to check up that everything was good."

"Why wouldn't things be good?" Dom asked them, not willing to make it too easy on the couple that had welcomed themselves over.

"Well, because, uh," Brian scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Because three days ago you saw Letty and you haven't said anything since," Mia took over, giving her brother a pointed look.

"So, what, exactly?" Dom rolled his eyes. "Because I'm not some girl that wants to talk about my feelings all day every day and pig out on chocolate and watch _Love Actually_ and cry my eyes out, you think something is wrong with me?" Mia huffed and rolled her eyes right back at him.

"Ooh, wow, you put a lot of thought into that come back," she muttered. "Stop being defensive, Dom. Just tell me where you're at."

"I'm fine, Mi," Dom told her, his voice coming out a little sharper than he intended. Brian gave him a look at his expression turned apologetic. "Look, Mi...I'm fine, okay? I mean, it went better than I thought it would, and that's all I can really hope for, right?"

"Well, we're definitely not here to corner you and—" Brian was interrupted again when Jesse called out from where he was listening in the lounge.

"Yes, they are!"

"You are not a part of this conversation, Jesse!" Mia yelled back at him. "You are only here for the beer, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled under his breath as he turned back to playing with Hadley.

"Mia," Dom looked at his sister steadily. "We got all of the awkward shit out of the way. I didn't think we would so quickly, but we did. I told her about Hadley, I told her about Elena, I told her we were going to be okay. That's it, right? That's what you want to know? It's fine. Me and her, we're fine."

"Wait, you told her about Elena?" Brian frowned.

"Well, mostly," Dom shrugged. "For the most part. And I don't want to talk about it." Mia looked as though she was going to argue but Brian sent her a pointed look. "Do you guys want to have dinner with us? I was just gonna order pizza."

"Sounds good," Brian grinned.

"And Dom?" Mia added. Dom swung his gaze over to his sister, looking a little hesitant but she just gave him a small smile. "You owe the swear jar."

 _What do you think? Leave a review :) And remember, I can only send out a preview if you're logged in x_


	12. Chapter 12

_Hey, my pretty people! Thank you so much for your reviews :) I'm glad you're enjoying it! We get a look at the break up scene in this one. Or at least, one side of it._

It was Friday now, five days after the family lunch.

Gisele had been right, and even though Letty hadn't been keen on talking about it, it was the right thing to do. Although, her friend saying that she was dying inside was a touch on the overly dramatic side. But hurting, that was definitely the right term. Thankfully, the Israeli girl hadn't brought it up again, which was good, because that was the last thing that she actually wanted to be thinking about right now.

All she wanted to focus on was her work, and herself. She hadn't come back to this city to get her old boyfriend back, she had come back for her job and because this was where her family was. It was where she belonged.

"Leticia? Doll?" Owen was waving his hand in front of her face and Letty blinked, realizing that she had completely zoned out.

"Hey, Owen," she blinked and forced a smile. "Sorry, I was just...Thinking," she finished lamely and he raised an eyebrow.

"Is everything okay?" He asked her, sitting down on the edge of her desk and looking over to her. "You're not having a hard time with the move?"

"Oh, no, no," she shook her head. "The move is good. I lived out here before going to Uni, so it's pretty much home. And coming home always feels good, right?" She gave him a half smile and tried to relax in her seat. "What about you? Are you enjoying it here in LA?" Owen pursed his lips together and nodded his head from side to side.

"Yeah, it's a nice place. A bit different from what I'm used to," he replied. "I'm sure I can get used to it. Plus," he sent her one of those smiles that Letty had seen him give to the hundreds of girls that had walked in and out of his office at all hours. "It helps that I've got a familiar face around." Letty raised an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side as she watched him carefully.

"Two familiar faces," she reminded him. He frowned for a second and then let out a short laugh.

"Right, yes, two familiar faces," he corrected himself. "You and Gisele."

"Yup," Letty nodded slowly with a small smirk on her face. "Me and Gisele." Owen nodded, licking his lower lip as he searched for something to say. She could practically see him thinking, the way his eyes never left her gaze.

"Well, I was thinking, that maybe tomorrow night, you—and just you, we can leave Gisele out of this—we could go out for dinner. Maybe go out dancing afterward," he suggested. Letty's stomach clenched lightly as she looked up at her boss, wondering what the correct reply would be here. She had told Han and Gisele the truth, saying that she wasn't after anything serious and if anything was started with her boss, it was going to be serious. But Owen wasn't such a bad guy. Dinner and dancing sounded like fun, even if it seemed a little old fashioned. And even if she didn't want serious, she could have fun, right?

"Yeah," Letty nodded, sounding almost more determined rather than happy. "Yeah, okay, it's a date."

"Oh really?" Owen looked surprised by her answer, but gave her another one of those mouth watering smiles. "Great, I'll pick you up around eight?" Letty tried not to show her outward cringe at the idea of being picked up. Sure, she had been out with other guys in the past, but generally she would drive herself there or take a cab. She really didn't like being in the passenger seat, but she assumed that the man doing the driving was the normal thing.

It didn't stop the one strike against him, though.

"Okay, yeah, I'll give you my address," she told him.

"It's no problem," he stood up from where he was resting against her desk. "We've got it on the invoices from the shipping company."

"Uh, right," she gave a nod. She idly wondered if that counted as some type of conflict of interest or violation of personal privacy, but she didn't say anything.

"I'll see you then," Owen headed back into his office. Letty waited until he was inside before risking a look over at Gisele, who's desk was a couple of metres away from her own. She had clearly heard the whole conversation because she didn't look too happy. Letty ignored her friend and turned her head back to the computer. She had barely done any work all morning, and she really needed to.

* * *

 _"Dom..." Letty sighed and ran a hand over her face, trying to keep the frustration she was feeling out of her voice. "Dom, you need to talk to me, man." He didn't say anything, still facing the opposite direction on his bed, staring numbly out the window, only a strip of the outside world visible given the curtains were mostly pulled shut. Letty had been trying to give him space, let him be, but it wasn't just him that he was hurting now. Mia was barely able to function and Letty had her own life that she needed to think about, as cruel as that sounded. "Dom, please," her voice shook slightly._

 _"I just need you to leave me alone, Letty," he finally spoke. Letty let out a hiss and walked over to the windows. She threw open the curtains and turned around to stare at him. "What the fuck are you doing, Letty?"_

 _"No, Dom," she snapped. "What are_ you _doing?"_

 _"I'm mourning my parents, if that's okay with you!" Dom snapped back at her, some emotion registering on his face after the past few weeks of absolutely nothing. She had told herself that if she could just get_ something _out of him, she would be happy, and she was. Anger was a pretty common emotion for Dom, and it felt good to see his body react._

 _"I'm not saying don't mourn them," Letty replied. "Don't you_ dare _say I have a problem with that," she stepped toward him, arms crossed over her chest. "I loved your parents almost as much as you and Mia, so don't try and turn this back on me." Dom sighed, and then the cloud in his eyes seemed to dissipate. She sensed the change in mood and sat down on his lap, her legs straddling him so that she was in a better position to wrap her arms around him. "Don't shut me out, Dominic. I love you."_

 _"Letty..." Dom pulled back as she tried to lean in and kiss him. "Letty, I'm not...I'm not shutting you out," he let out a growl through clenched teeth. Letty frowned and put her hands on his shoulders, massaging them lightly as she stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "I need to talk to you about something and I'm not sure how to say it." Her whole body stiffened in his lap, her hands freezing on his shoulders. Dom swallowed hard, but instead of assuring her that she had no reason to be worried, he just lifted his arms to take away her hands from his shoulders, and held them tightly in his. "I love you, Leticia Carmen Hadley Ortiz. I love you more than...More than words can describe." Her pretty eyes were already filled with tears, and Dom swallowed visibly again, his shoulders heaving as he jerked in a deep breath. "And that's why I'm telling you that_ —"

 _"Don't you say it," Letty managed to say, even though it felt like her lungs were collapsing in her chest. "Don't you say_ —"

 _"I'm telling you that you need to go," he said, his voice catching in his throat. "I'm telling you that you're going to be better off_ — _"_

 _"Dom_ —"

 _"Letty, this is hard enough, but you're not going to change my mind," Dom told her, letting go of her hands and resting his hands down on her hips and pushing her backwards, so that she was forced to put her feet on the ground and stand up if she didn't want to fall on her ass. He stood up with her, looking over her head and out the window. "It's the best thing_ —"

 _"If you're telling me to leave, you fucking look at me, Dominic Toretto," Letty's voice was shaky but firm. He could see the sheen of tears in her eyes, but her hands were balled into fists at her side, her jaw locked determinedly. "Don't you take the cowards way out here, Dom_ —"

 _"I'm doing this for you, don't you understand?" Dom finally dipped his chin slightly, so that he was meeting her gaze. His words were saying one thing, but his eyes were saying the opposite. "I'm not...I can't do this right now. I can't look after you, and Mia, and me_ —"

" _I'm not asking you to look after me, Dom!" Letty cried. "When have I ever asked you to look after me?!"_

 _"That's my job, Letty! It's my job to be strong, and protect, and it's also my job to just_ be there _for you, and I can't do that right now! I don't know how long it's going to be before I_ can _do that_ —"

 _"You know I would wait forever for you, Dom_ —"

" _But you shouldn't have to," Dom concluded, with such finality in his voice and in his expression that Letty knew she wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it. "You're eighteen, Letty, and you're too young too be dealing with this. I want you to take the spot at San Fran, and I want you to get drunk and get some shitty part time job and drag yourself out of bed on Friday mornings to go to lectures. I want you to meet new people and try new things, and I...Shit, Letty, I just want you to be happy." He took in a deep breath and cupped her face in his hands, trying to draw her into him. But she wouldn't let him, jerking her body away from him and mustering everything she had inside of her to fix him with an angry glare. "I'm doing this for you, Letty."_

 _"No, Dom," she muttered. "You're doing this for you, Dom. Because you're all caught up in your head and you don't think you deserve to be happy right now." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room. She could hear that he was moving toward the doorway and watching her go, but he didn't say a word as she reached the stairs and disappeared._

* * *

"What the hell are you doing—accepting a date with Owen?" Gisele asked on the drive home, giving her friend a narrow eyed look. "That's not going to go well."

"Well you're sure singing a different tune. I'm pretty sure for the past six months you've been all about me getting it on with the boss, remember?" Letty rolled her eyes before looking back at the road. "You even got Han on the band wagon."

"That was before I saw you and Dom together!" Gisele cried. "That was—"

"What?!" Letty interrupted her, her eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline as she glanced over at the girl. "You're kidding, right? That's over! That was over so long ago."

"I don't think it is," Gisele stated, resting her elbow against the doorframe and tilting her head into her hand. "In fact, I'm one hundred percent certain that it isn't." Letty flexed her fingers on the steering wheel, choosing not to say anything because she really didn't have anything nice to say to her friend right now. "I just had to see you guys together once to know that you guys still have that—that _thing_! I know it's complicated, and I know there's history, but I really think that—"

"G," Letty shook her head. "I didn't move back here to bring up old shit. That chapter of my life is over, okay? I hated him for ages after we broke up, and I was in a really shitty place. Now I'm over that, and I understand why he did it, but that doesn't mean that I want to go back there again." She purposefully reached for the volume on her stereo. "I'm gonna go out with Dom and I'm going to have a good time." Gisele snorted knowingly from the passenger seat. "What?!" Letty snapped.

" _Owen_ ," Gisele sung out. "You're going to go out with _Owen_." Letty's eyebrows furrowed as she jabbed at the volume button, Linkin Park suddenly becoming a whole lot louder in the enclosed car.

"Owen," she muttered under her breath. "That's what I said."

 _Hit me with a review? Pretty please? I'll love you forever and ever. And I'll give you a preview :) x_

 _(By the way, have you all heard_ Waiting for a Superman _by Daughtry? I'm kind of in love.)_

 _(LOL and also_ Don't Deserve You _by Plumb? Totally amazing.)_


	13. Chapter 13

_Hey, my beautiful people! Big thank you to your reviews for the last chapter. Lots of conflicted views over the upcoming date with Owen. Don't worry, ya'll already know that the end game is Dotty. Any mistakes are my own, and I apologize._

Gisele had been right.

Who was she kidding, Gisele was always right.

Fuck, she hated this.

Gisele had said that Owen had liked her. Letty had always known that that there was a little bit of truth to that, and she had at least felt an attraction toward him, but she didn't want to encourage her friends teasing, so she had just denied everything.

Gisele had said that Letty wouldn't enjoy going out with Owen. Right now, sitting opposite him in the restaurant, she could tell that she was right. She was dressed in a tight red dress that made her feel uncomfortable and also limited how much she could eat, which was never a plus with her.

Gisele had said that she wasn't okay with this because of Dom.

She was right about that as well, no matter what Letty told herself.

"Letty?" Owen was looking at her across the table. She cleared her throat and forced a smile.

"Yeah, sorry," she apologized.

"Is everything okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Letty answered. "I'm fine. Sorry, it's just been a long couple of weeks. I met up with some friends last weekend who are like family to me...And I hadn't seen them in such a long time. It was really good." Owen was nodding, although he was looking down at his plate and cutting up his steak as he did so. This was _not_ something that you talked about when out on a date with your boss.

But then she wasn't sure if there was actually some sort of guideline for doing that.

Every scenario that she thought up about dating the boss, ended in a really bad porno where the secretary was spread eagle on a desk.

Conversation shifted to something a little more neutral, Owen's brother, Deckard Shaw. Letty had seen him around the lawn firm but she had had little interaction with him. Apparently the brothers were pretty competitive and there had been quite some tension over who was getting the place as CEO of the Los Angeles branch. Owen had got the role, which Deckard wasn't too happy about, given he was the older brother, and he was now flitting around the new building and throwing out snarky vibes.

Kind of like a twelve year old girl, which was extremely unattractive.

Although the way that Owen appeared to be gloating about it now was also pretty unattractive.

After they finished eating, and had a drink, they headed down the road. Los Angeles was always buzzing with energy at this time on a Saturday night. Music was playing through the speakers in the roofing, and then there was different songs and tempos coming from the different clubs and restaurants along the street. There was laughing and talking, and people looked happy and verging on drunk. Letty remembered when she was in high school and she would want to be a part of this life, looking up to it as a sixteen year old girl.

The first taste she ever got of it was at the races. The fast cars, the scantily clad girls, the adrenaline rush. That first race she went to, Dom hiding her and Mia in the back of his car, had been when she felt like she was living for the first time. She had always known that gasoline was running through her blood, but that night, the high she had gotten, was something she knew she would never forget. That was the first time that she had kissed Dom. He had raced with her in the car, winning the race by a good few inches, but then he hadn't stopped to collect his money prize. He kept going until they were buried deep in the city, in a parking building that housed vehicles long term. He had pulled her over the centre console of the car, she had let her legs fall on either side of him and then had bruised his lips with her own.

"Letty?" Her arm was linked through Owen's, and he gave it a squeeze to get her attention.

"Hey, uh, yeah?" She blinked up at him.

"Are you okay?" He frowned at her. "You seem really distracted."

"Yeah, no, I'm sorry," Letty attempted a reassuring smile. "It's just...Being back in the city. Brings back a lot of memories. And I haven't really gone out and done anything, so things just come back slowly. I remember things that aren't really important," she shrugged. Owen stopped and she looked up at him, wondering if he had something to say, but then he nodded to their left and she realized that they were outside a small red building, an old jazz bar that her mother used to bring her to when she was younger.

For the first time on her date with Owen she actually felt excited.

"Ohmygod, are you serious?" She gripped his arm. He grinned at her as he saw the look on her face.

"Yeah, I remember a few months ago, you and Gisele were talking in the office about this place that you went dancing when you were little," Owen said. "When I found out that the company was moving here and you were coming with me, I looked it up online and found it here. Wasn't sure if I was actually going to be able to convince you to go out on a date with me or not, but I figured I might as well have it in my back pocket." Letty looked up at him, the grin on his face, the earnestness in his eyes, and she had to force herself to keep the smile on her face.

He had put a lot of thought into this, and she was just using him as a way to forget what her problems were.

"This is amazing, Owen," Letty murmured, feeling a little guilty. "Honestly, I had no idea that this was where we were going."

"Great," Owen nodded. "Let's go."

* * *

"I think it might be about time to go out and get some beers," Vince announced. Dom looked up from where he was sitting on the couch, the play station controller in his hand and mouth open.

"That's bullshit, man!" He yelled out. "You're only saying that because I'm kicking your ass!"

"Now you know I always come back in the last ten seconds," Vince snapped at him.

"Ten seconds is all I need to make you my bitch," Dom smirked.

"Ooh," Jesse cringed. "He's got a point, man. You're fucking dying out there."

"You're so lucky that Mia's not here," Brian piped up from where he was in an arm chair, legs hooked over the arm rest, and shovelling chips into his mouth. "She would have all of you paying the swear jar with your language." Leon turned to the blonde with an arched eyebrow.

"She would have _you_ cleaning the house with a toothbrush if she saw what a mess you were making without a second thought," he stated.

"But she's not here," Brian said through a mouthful of chips. "So it doesn't count."

"I have to get all of this swearing out of me," Dom said. "It's pretty hard to go from talking like a drunken sailor to reading _Goodnight Moon_."

"I think you're managing just fine, bro," Jesse assured him. "Hadley's a happy kid. She's fucking adorable. You're the best dad out there."

"Are we honestly turning this guys night into a mushy love fest?" Vince looked disgusted, and Dom just laughed. Leon, Jesse and Brian all looked over at the man in the doorway of the room with pointed looks and Vince sighed through his nose, making a face. "Yeah, well, okay, did you guys see this?" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and walked over to where the boys were all still sitting. "Doesn't she look cute?" He turned his phone around so that his friends could see the photo he had taken. Hadley was laying on her back, her feet in the air and holding onto her toes with her tiny little hands and a big smile on her face.

"See?" Leon smirked. "He's just as sappy as the rest of us."

"Yeah, yeah," Vince rolled his eyes. "Let's go get some beer."

"I'm down for that," Jesse agreed.

"But we're going to have a re-match when we're back," Dom said, getting up from the couch and throwing down his controller.

"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled under his breath. The five headed outside, naturally all heading toward Dom's car, because they all knew that the Toretto refused to let someone sit in the drivers seat, so as long as he was sober, it was him behind the wheel. They headed into town, slowing down as they turned down a busy street.

"What time is it? Town is busy as shit tonight," Jesse commented as he looked out the window to where there were a couple of girls standing on the pedestrian with flirtatious smiles on their faces as the boys slowed down to let them go across.

"It's just past eleven," Leon said after checking his phone. "And dude, where are your hands?"

"What are you on about, you weirdo?" Jesse held both of his hands up.

"Then it's you?" Leon turned to Brian, who frowned and held up both of his hands. "Okay, guys. There is something up my ass right now." Jesse snickered and rolled his eyes, looking back out the window at the girls who were now stumbling across the road. "No, guys, seriously."

"Can someone stop his whining?" Vince grunted from the passenger seat up front.

"Easy for you to say, you're not squished into the back seat of this car," Leon grumbled, trying to elbow his way to more room.

"Okay, lean forward," Brian said. Leon leaned forward as much as he could and Brian let out a triumphant noise. "Here we go." It was one of Hadley's bottles, and the blonde made a face as he waved it in front of Dom's face. "You might want to give this one a good wash."

"You'd be better off burning it," Jesse snorted unhelpfully.

"Hey, isn't that Letty?" Vince asked from the front seat. The boys all looked out the side of the car, sorting their way through the throngs of people on the street before Vince continued, "The one in the red."

"Shit, she looks good!"

"Look at those legs!"

"Who's the twot she's with?"

"He looks all uppity—look at those shoes!"

"Wind down the window," Leon nudged Jesse in the side. He did as asked, and let out a loud wolf whistle. A couple of the girls closer to them sent smiles their way.

"Not you," Jesse muttered. "Although possibly the one in the purple..."

"Amateur," Leon muttered as he cupped his mouth to project his voice. "Leticia Ortiz!" He shouted and that got her attention, as well as the attention from about ten other people around them. She looked confused for a moment before her eyes found them and she smiled wide. "Looking hot, Ortiz!" She was close enough for them to see her roll her eyes.

"Why don't you give us a twirl in that pretty dress?!" Vince shouted, joining in with the taunting. The man next to her looked confused, looking between her and the car filled with men. "Come on, Letty! Give us a spin!" Letty gave them a look and the lifted her hand, pulling the finger at them, to the surprise of her date.

The car erupted into laughter at her response.

The only person not laughing was Dom, who was just staring at her, and only Brian heard because he was sitting directly behind the drivers seat.

"Still fucking beautiful."

 _So this is my last update for the year. I'm taking some time from now until after New Years because I've got five weeks of training at work, plus two 21st's, plus a concert, plus Christmas and New Years_ — _just insanely busy in general! But I love you all so much, and pretty please leave a review, as an early Christmas present to me, and I'll send you a preview, along with lots of my love._

 _I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you guys for making my year great, and I hope that my stories have helped you all to escape reality for just a few minutes xxxx_


	14. Chapter 14

_Okay! So the original plan was to not update until next year. But the thing is;_ of course _I kept on writing, but I was just focussing on a bunch of prompts and ideas that I've had written down for quite some time. And now I've ended up with an overloaded documents folder and also a bunch of personal messages and reviews asking for a speedy update, so here we go! I'm updating now, and will resume normal updating from the 01/02/2016. I hope you guys had an amazing Christmas, and have an incredible New Year! On with the story, and I apologize for any mistakes made;_

Work on Monday wasn't too bad. It wasn't that their date had ended badly on Saturday night, but it probably hadn't ended the way that Owen had wanted it too. After they went dancing, he had driven her home. She had given him a kiss in the car, an open mouthed but no tongue kiss, that pretty much said this was where it was going to end. He had been a gentleman about it, wishing her a good night and leaving without an argument. He didn't try to push things with her on Monday either, keeping things professional, although a little stiff when he came over to talk to her.

After work, Gisele was picked up by Han, and Letty decided to go over to see Mia. She was just pulling up outside when Mia came out the door, Hadley in one arm and a thick folder in the other.

"Is this a bad time?" Letty called as she slammed her door shut and walked up the driveway, spinning her keys around her fingers.

"Ooh, Letty, this is amazing!" Mia cried out as she saw her friend. Letty frowned in confusion. "I'm running so late for my night class," Mia said as she walked down to meet her. "Hadley just threw up all over herself so I had to change her and now I'm going to be late, because I have to drop her off at the garage first. Could you pretty, pretty please take her?"

"Wait, to the garage? As in, to Dom?" Letty made a face. "I really don't think that that's a good idea."

"Let, you'd be doing me a big favour," Mia pouted. "Please, please, please." Hadley looked between the two woman, a smile on her face as she held onto her aunts hair, wrapped around her tiny fingers. Letty let out a moan and finally nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," she nodded.

"You're a life saver!" Mia cried.

"Have you got the baby seat, or whatever?" Letty asked, looking into Mia's car. The Cuban nodded, handing her the keys for her car. She took them from her hand and unlocked the back door, bending over so that she could unbuckle the seat. She carried it back to her seat, awkwardly fixing it into the back seat of her own car. She made another face as she straightened up and looked down. "How do I know that that's in properly?"

"I'll check," Mia said, holding out Hadley. Letty hesitated, before taking Hadley from her arms and holding her against her side. Hadley grinned up at her, all gummy smiles and wide, adoring eyes, and Letty felt her heart ache a little bit inside her chest. Mia checked over the seat, giving a few good tugs, before nodding. "Yup, it's good," she said, holding out her hands to take Hadley back. She put her into the seat, and clipped her in. "I'll just grab her bag."

"Okay," Letty nodded, looking down to the girl in the back seat. Hadley was pulling at her straps, gurgling happily to herself, and Letty looked back up toward the house as Mia came back.

"You know where the garage is?" Mia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You're kidding, right?" Letty snorted. "I know that place better than I knew my own house."

"Just checking," Mia smiled. She reached forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks, babe. You're a life saver."

"Um," Letty was still blinking, trying to process what she had gotten herself into as Mia was rushing back to her car and getting inside. The car turned on and Letty quickly realized that she was going toing to need to move her vehicle or else Mia was going to be even later for her class. She walked around to the drivers seat and got inside, not bothering with her seatbelt as she reversed out of the driveway and waited for Mia to back up and quickly take off down the street with a toot. Letty was in neutral now, and she twisted around in her seat to look into the back of her car. Hadley's seat was facing the opposite direction, but the little girl had her neck twisted in an attempt to look at her. "Okay, doll. Let's get you to your daddy."

Daddy.

Dom.

"Fucking hell," she muttered under her breath and she turned back in her seat, pulling on her seat belt and buckling it in. She shifted her car into first and started down the street, indicating to turn right at the end. She had been pointedly avoiding going anywhere near this part of the city, and now she was driving directly toward it. Hadley was gurgling away happily in the back seat and Letty couldn't help but appreciate _again_ what an amazing job her ex-boyfriend had done.

He had raised Hadley without a mother, and he had done an incredible job. She was healthy and she was happy, and he had done _so well_.

She reached the garage and slowed right down before swallowing hard and turning down the driveway.

It looked a little different than it had before. The sign was new, there had been a couple of modifications to the outside—and the cars were all different. All more expensive and a lot prettier than before. The grease monkey inside of her gave a little squeal of delight as she took in vehicles as her own car came to a stop. She was a few metres away from eyeshot, but they undoubtedly heard her arrive, and it wouldn't be long before someone came out to have a look for who it was.

"Okay, baby," Letty turned off her car and opened her door. "Let's go." She got out and walked around to the backdoor, unbuckling Hadley and lifting her from the seat. Hadley gave her a big smile as she clamped her legs on Letty's side, one arm tangling in her hair and the other grabbing at the necklace she was wearing. It was a clunky thing that Gisele had got her from an op shop, and Letty barely ever took it off. It was blue and green and maybe a little sparkly, and had clearly caught Hadley's eye. Letty didn't try to pull it away from the girl as they headed inside.

"Whoah! Letty!" Vince leered at her.

"Looking like a babe, Let!"

"Don't know if I'm ever going to get used to this new Letty," Jesse smirked as he came over to her. Letty rolled her eyes at him as she slowed her gate. Yeah, she knew where they were coming from. Her transformation had been gradual, and she didn't realize notice it happening, until one day, she had highlights in her hair and she was wearing skirts. Today, it was a silky white blouse matched with a dark, high-waisted skirt and three inch kitten heels.

It was only being back here that made her realize just how much she had changed.

There was a time when she wouldn't be caught dead with a plait in her hair, and now she spent a good part of her morning regime on brushing and straightening. And she never used to wear anymore make up than a swipe of lip gloss, and now she had ten different kinds of brushes to do her eye shadow with.

"Letty?" Dom appeared through the doorway of the office, frowning over at her and at his daughter in her arms. "What are you doing with Lee?" Jesse looked between the two and then over at the other boys in the garage.

"I think that's a wrap for today!" He shouted out pointedly. "Let's pack up!" Letty gave the younger boy a grateful smile before walking over to where Dom was standing. He took a couple of steps back into his office, giving her room to walk past him. Hadley looked overjoyed as she saw her father, but she was still holding on tightly to the necklace around Letty's neck. Dom rested his ass on the edge of the desk, folding his muscular arms over his chest as he watched the two girls.

"Uh, Mia was running late for her class so she asked me to bring Hadley over. Hope that's okay," she hoped the strain wasn't showing in her voice.

"Yeah, no, that's great. Thanks," Dom nodded. Letty looked him up and down, swallowing hard to try and keep her expression composed. There was something so _fucking gorgeous_ about Dom in overalls rolled down to his waist, only wearing a wife beater on his torso, his big, broad shoulders on full display and grease staining his thick arms.

She had always loved the way he looked.

And how strong he looked.

And how strong _he was_ , given how easily he would pick her up and hold her against the wall.

"Letty?" Dom was frowning at her now, and she realized that he had been speaking to her.

"Oh, sorry," she shook her head. "Long day at work."

"Right, yeah," Dom nodded and gave her a small smile that was clearly forced. "Well, yeah, um, thanks again, for bringing Lee by."

"No, that's no problem," Letty smiled down at Hadley, this time her face a lot more relaxed. Hadley tipped her head back to grin back at the woman, still chewing away at the pedant. Dom seemed to notice for the first time what she had in her mouth.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Dom quickly moved forward, one hand going to Hadley's back and the other going to Hadley's mouth. "Come on sweetheart, let it go." The side of his hand was pressing against her arm, warm and heavy, and it made her feel a little hot under her collar. Maybe it also had something to do with that way Hadley was tilting her head to the side and giving her dad a cheeky smile as he tried to work the pedant out of her mouth.

"It's okay, honestly," Letty said, swallowing hard as she stared down at Hadley. Dom was so close to her that their bodies were almost only a couple of inches apart and it made her feel nervous. She took a step back and put her hand to her neck, tugging the necklace over his head and leaving it in Hadley's hands. She held the girl out to the eldest Toretto. "She can just keep it."

"No, it's fine, it's—" Dom took Hadley from Letty and frowned at her. "It looks expensive."

"It wasn't," Letty stated, already backing to the door.

"I can get you another one," he offered.

"No. You never brought me jewellery before, why start now?" She let out a short laugh as though it was a joke, but then she was spinning on her heel and heading out of the garage. Dom walked to the door of the office, watching her go with a frown on his face. She disappeared out the front door and a moment later, he heard her car start. Dom looked down at Hadley, who was gnawing away on the pendant and gripping his shirt with her hands.

"You like that, baby girl?" He murmured. "She always had good taste."

 _Alright, my beauties! Leave me a review, and I'll send you a preview, and we'll all be very, very happy!_

 _Until next time :) x_


	15. Chapter 15

_Hey, pretties! I'm back! Hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New Years :) Also just a heads up that I've updated my profile and so I've got my updating schedule on there._

A month went by, and things were moving along a whole lot quicker than Letty thought. Things with Owen seemed to have smoothed out, although there were times when it felt as though he was acting colder than he had before. She prided herself in never dating anyone she had worked with before—definitely not counting the time she was with Dom, because she was a kid—and she had been pissed that she had given in. But they were adults, and surely they could just move past a one time thing.

It was starting to feel like home again, even when in the same room as Dom. They didn't really talk much, which Letty was happy with, given not talking was better than awkward conversation. But she had fallen in love with Hadley, just like everyone else, and she was glad that just because her and Dom had history, he didn't stop her from spending time with Hadley when they were together, like on Sunday dinner.

Dom was adjusting to having Letty back, but she seemed to be taking it a lot better than him. Sometimes, she would say something or do something and it would send him back five years and then when he came crashing back into the now, it made him feel sick and dizzy and his heart ache. He refused to talk to anyone about it though, he had a lot of friends—he had family—but what happened between him and Letty, had always stayed between him and Letty.

He had never brought anyone in on how the separation between them had affected him—how _much_ it had affected him—and he never planned on it.

"Dom? You with us?" Mia asked, waving her hand in front of her brothers face. Dom blinked at her and gave him a tight smile.

"I'm good," he told her.

"Okay, well, how late do you think that you'll be out?" She cringed. "I'm really sorry to bail on you like this, it's just I have this test on Monday and it's huge and I..." she broke off and ran a hand over her face, looking distressed. "I've barely had any sleep trying to prep over the past couple of days."

"Mia, it's fine," Dom assured her, reaching out to touch her arm ."It's totally fine. I don't need to go out tonight. I'll just stay in," he looked over to where his daughter was sleeping, tucked in her blanket and nestled between a couple of cushions on the couch to stop herself from rolling either way. "Me and Hadley haven't spent too much time together lately," he said with a small sigh. "I've been working over time. And, Mi," he gave her arm a squeeze. "She's my daughter. She's not your responsibility. You need to focus on your degree, and if you're having a hard time balancing that and Hadley, then—"

"What are you on about, Dom?" Mia rolled her eyes and frowning at him. "I love Hadley, and she's my family. You're my family. Of course she's my responsibility. I want to help. Just...Maybe not tonight?"

"No, that's fine," Dom repeated, giving her a soothing smile, not looking at all bothered. "I'm just going to give the boys a call." He stepped away from her and pulled out his phone. He was about to speed dial Vince when Mia interrupted and spoke up.

"Give Letty a call," she stated. Dom blinked and looked back at her.

"You're kidding, right?" Dom forced a half smile.

"No, I'm not," Mia replied, keeping her expression neutral. "She likes Hadley, and Hadley likes her. You deserve a night out."

"It's Friday," Dom argued. "She's probably got plans."

"She doesn't," she shot back. "She's at home, probably in front of the TV with noodles."

"Come on, Mi," Dom rolled his eyes. "She doesn't want to be strapped down with a kid on a Friday night."

"I'm sure she won't mind. And, like I said, she doesn't have any other plans tonight," Mia looked completely serious, and Dom knew that there was no way around this option. She was as stubborn as him. "Just give her a call, and ask. There's no harm in asking. And you deserve a night out. You haven't been out in a while." Dom stared at her for a long moment and she just stared back until he sighed.

"Fine," he muttered. "Do you have her number?"

"Of course," Mia finally grinned and handed over phone, with Letty's contact already up on the screen. Dom put the number into his phone, rolling his eyes at his sister one last time before giving her phone back and then taking a few steps away to give himself a bit of privacy on his call. It rang twice before someone picked up, and a wave of nervousness rolled over him. It seemed as though his body had just caught up to the fact that he was calling Letty.

"Hello, Leticia speaking," came Letty's voice in an extreamly un-Letty sort of tone. Dom almost let out a laugh in disbelief.

"Uh, Letty?" He asked.

"Dom?" She sounded confused. "Is everything okay? Is Hadley okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, no we're fine," he quickly assured her, although there was a quick clench of his stomach at the twinge of worry in her voice as she asked about his daughter. "Look, this feels as though it's a bit out of line, but I was wondering if you were busy tonight." He was met with silence from the other end of the line, and he realized that maybe he hadn't approached that quite the best way. "Uh, because of Hadley, not because of me," he quickly said. "As in, I won't be there, but I was wondering—" he was babbling.

And Dominic Toretto _didn't_ babble.

"What is it, Dom?" Letty asked, but her voice sounded a little amused.

"I was wondering if you were able to look after Hadley tonight," he finally breathed. "Mia's busy, but it's totally fine. If you can't, I mean. I know it's last minute and—"

"I would love to!" Letty sounded genuine. "Did you want to bring her over to my place?" Dom blinked, taken aback at how easy that was, and he looked over at his sister, wondering if she had anything to do with this, but Mia was still watching him intently, as though still waiting for an answer.

"Uh, yeah! Yeah, sure, that would be great," Dom replied. They said their goodbyes and were then hanging up the phone. "She said 'yes'," he said, turning around and giving his sister a surprised look. Mia just grinned in response, settling back down at the chair she was in at the kitchen table, folding one of her legs underneath her and putting her glasses back on. "I can't believe how easy that was," Dom shook his head, tapping his phone against his mouth as he thought about her.

"You might want to get a hustle on," she commented as she tapped her fingers over the keyboard. "She lives in the middle of the city."

"Oh, shit," Dom's eyes widened. "Shit!" He scrambled around the room, picking up all of Hadley's things and then gently trying to wake her up during his rush. Mia grinned, her eyes not moving from the screen of her laptop as one hand pointed across the table.

"Swear jar," she sung out.

* * *

The drop off at Letty's place was awkward. Dom wasn't sure how much experience she had with a baby, but he didn't want to make her feel like he didn't trust her by going into too many instructions. Letty looked like a natural as she took Hadley from him in one arm and then took the baby bag from him with the other hand.

"Uh, I won't be too late," Dom assured her. "Maybe around twelve?"

"Dom," Letty wasn't even looking at him, smiling at Hadley, wiggling her fingers in front of Hadley's face and grinning as the little girl gripped her fingers and sucked on them. "Just go out with your boys. Me and my baby are going to have a good time." Dom's heart clenched at her words, but she didn't even look as though she realized what she had said. Hadley was giggling and bouncing up and down on her hip, waving her hands up and down. "Dom," Letty was finally looking at him, a smile on her face, clearly sensing his tension. "Go out and have fun. I love Hadley, she's going to be fine."

"Thanks," Dom said. He felt the urge to lean forward and give her a hug or a kiss on the cheek, but he kept himself from doing so. "I owe you, Let."

"We're family," Letty said offhandedly. Dom turned on his heel and was out of there before she said anything else that was going to pull on his heart strings.

* * *

Dom couldn't help but worry about Hadley, but he managed to relax enough to enjoy the movie, and they then went out for a round of drinks afterward. Dom was sober driving the lot of them, so he settled for just a beer, and he was happy with that. Jesse was making an idiot of himself, trying to impress a pretty blonde girl at the bar, and Leon then swooped in and took over, the girl agreeing within minutes to go home with him. They were walking out of the bar in no time, looking to hail a cab, while Jesse was protesting, saying that it went against every guy code there was. It was half past twelve before the boys agreed to go home, Dom saying that he didn't want to disrupt Letty's sleep as well as her night. Vince had had a couple of things to say about how Hadley was staying at Letty's, but Dom ignored him.

It was nearing one before Dom was pulling up outside Letty and Gisele's apartment building. He was glad it was one of the open apartment blocks, rather than everywhere being accessed through a lobby, because he had already tried to call her a couple of times and there was no reply. As he was nearing her floor, taking the steps two at a time, he heard his name being called.

"Dom?" He turned around and Gisele was standing there, looking good in a black and good dress and high heels.

"Oh, hey," he smiled at her, a little confused. "You just had a date or something?"

"Date night," she confirmed with a grin. "But I'm doing some overtime tomorrow, so there was no sleepover happening tonight," she winked at him and he grinned back at her. He liked this girl; Letty had always been good judge at character.

"Poor kid," Dom joked as they reached the girls apartment door. Gisele unlocked the door and walked inside, keeping it open for him to follow after her. She was kicking off her shoes as Dom looked around, taking a few steps further into the apartment. The place was nice, and tidy. There was a bottle that was on the drying rack, one of Hadleys, all pieces pulled apart and drying separately like it was meant too. "Uh," he tilted his head as he looked around. "Do you knnow where they are?"

"I've been here just as long as you," Gisele replied with a pointed look. Dom gave her an apologetic smile, walking into the adjoining lounge area when he saw Hadley's blanket slung over the back of the couch, and then froze. Gisele walked over to where he was standing, and crossed her arms, a smile on her face. "Found them."

Letty was sprawled out on the couch, and Hadley was on her chest, both of them fast asleep. Letty's arm were protectively around the girl, carefully under her bum, supporting her, and Hadley's head was resting on the cushion of her breasts, her thumb in her mouth and the other hand clenched around yet another one of Letty's necklaces. The little girl made a noise, wiggling slightly, and then letting out a contented sigh, settling back down.

It wasn't until there was a door shutting down the hallway that Dom realized he had been standing there for over ten minutes, and Gisele had moved to give them some space, and he had been there alone, just watching his two girls.

 _OMG, by the way; has every seen the new_ Wonder Woman _clips that have been released? Does Gal Gadot look like a complete badass babe, or what? I was a little worried when they first announced her as the character, but I reckon she is going to kill it. And the new_ Suicide Squad _trailer? Margot Robbie is incredible ;)_

 _Oh, and how do we feel about Miley and Liam being back together? Yes, I'm completely aware she's a crazy bitch, but I fucking love her, and I was totally rooting for that couple ;)_

 _Let me know what you guys think! Your reviews make me very happy ;) Plus I'll send you a preview x_


	16. Chapter 16

_Hey, guys! I'm back with another update. Thanks for all the love and reviews for the last chapter :)_

"Come on, Let!" Gisele panted. "This is crazy!"

"Why do you even come with me?!" Letty called back over her shoulder. "You just bitch and whine the whole time!"

"That's because you trick me every time!" Gisele hissed out, pumping her legs harder. "You're all like; it'll be fun. We'll take it easy. The sun is so pretty outside." Letty grinned and shook her head, finally slowing down to take it easier on her friend. They reached their apartment building and stopped their run, slowing to a walk. Gisele swiped the back of her hand over her forehead as they started on the stairs.

"So how was work?" Letty asked as they reached their floor, and Gisele pulled their key out of the zipped pocket in her shorts.

"Eh, it was fine," she shrugged. "It's a big case, so I get why it's such a big deal. But there's only so many times that I can go through those ledgers. I'm pretty sure the girl is clean."

"It doesn't matter what we think," Letty sung out as she walked into the kitchen and poured herself a drink.

"Yeah, yeah," Gisele rolled her eyes. The Israeli girl walked down the hallway and turned on the shower. After a few minutes, she came back out to the lounge, a towel slung over her arm. "So, you looked pretty domesticated last night when I got home." Letty hummed under her breath as she looked down at that mornings paper, flicking through the pages. "You know, with Hadley, fast asleep, on the couch," Gisele hinted. Letty's eyes lifted up to look at her friend for a minute before dropping back to the paper. "Oh, for fucks sakes," Gisele rolled her eyes. "Come on."

"He needed a babysitter because Mia was studying. The guy needed a night off, which is perfectly normal," Letty said, purposefully keeping her voice even. "I did a favour for a friend."

"You looked after his baby," Gisele emphasized.

"And? I'm good with kids," Letty shrugged, finishing off her glass of water and pushing it toward the sink.

"I've never seen you with kids!" Gisele protested.

"Now that's not true," Letty grinned over at her. "Remember when Neela came to visit work after she went on maternity leave? You saw me with a baby then."

"For, like, two seconds!" Gisele sputtered. "That doesn't count!"

"Well clearly, Hadley has good taste," Letty stated. Gisele let out a loud huff.

"I give up!" She cried, spinning on her heel and heading back down the hall. Letty grinned and leaned forward, her arms folded on the counter as she started reading an article in the paper. It was a few minutes later, somewhere between Gisele's loud rendition of _Wannabe_ and _What Is Love_ that her phone buzzed. She idly picked it up, her eyes still on the paper as she swiped her finger over the screen. She waited until the text screen lit up and then looked over at the phone, her body straightening up as she saw the name on the screen. "Dom?"

"Letty! Hey," Dom sounded as nervous as she felt.

"Hey," Letty replied, swallowing hard.

"Look, I just want to say thank you again, for the other night," he began.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Letty felt a little easier knowing that the call was staying on a safe subject. "She's gorgeous. Bring her over anytime."

"I actually meant to bring your necklace over, I've had it in my car for the past few weeks," Dom said.

"Oh, yeah," Letty instinctively put her hand to her throat. "Yeah, I keep going to put it on in the morning and forgetting I don't have it." There was quiet for a moment.

"I didn't realize it was so important to you," Dom's voice was quieter now, a little more tense. "I would have tried to get it back to you earlier." Letty paused for a moment and then a smile edged at the corners of her mouth, and she fought to keep her lips in a firm line. She knew that tone; he was jealous. She knew that she should be angry, because for all intents and purposes, he had absolutely no reason to be, but it was kind of funny.

"Gisele gave it to me," she told him. "It was cheap, but it was before I went into my first big exam for my degree."

"Oh, right," Dom's voice almost hilariously perked up. "Right, well, when did you want it back?"

"I'll be there on tomorrow, I'm guessing I'll see you there?" Letty's fingers went to her pony tail, threading through the strands and weaving it through her hand.

"I didn't know you were coming," he said.

"I didn't realize it was a problem?" Letty taunted him lightly and he let out a short laugh. Short, but true.

"It's not," he assured her. They both went quiet and Letty couldn't stop her smile as her fingers continued to play with her hair, her head tilted to the side. "So, well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"You will," Letty agreed lightly.

"Enjoy the rest of your day, Ortiz," he signed off, his voice still sounding like he was grinning.

"You too, Toretto," Letty murmured, before taking her phone away from her ear and ending the call. She hadn't realized that she had an audience until Gisele spoke up from the doorway with a knowing grin on her face.

"Oh yeah," she snorted. "Not interested in him at all, aye?" Gisele teased before making dopey eyes and creating a big show of playing with her hair. "I want you, Dom, you and your big, muscly arms and that beautiful mouth—" she started, her voice high pitched and undoubtedly meant to be mimicking Letty's. She was cut off when the scrunched up newspaper came flying toward her head.

* * *

"Aw, but please!" Jesse was making big eyes at Mia, attempting to batter his eyelashes in a way that was probably meant to make her feel sorry for him, but it just made her wonder if he had something caught in his eye.

"You have feet. Get your walk on," Mia pointed to the house. Jesse opened his mouth to argue again, but she gave him a sharp look and he snapped his lips back together. Roman threw his head back and laughed as Jesse got up from where he was slouched at a seat around the long picnic table and walked inside the house. Mia went back over to where she had been standing next to her brother, who was manning the barbecue, and picked up the bottle of beer on the wooden shelf. "You know that Letty is coming over today, right?" Mia murmured, looking at Dom out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, I know," he nodded as he flipped the steak that was on the barbecue top.

"And you're okay with that?" Mia tilted her head to the side.

"I'm fine, Mi," Dom assured her. Mia looked as though she wanted to say something else, but Dom interrupted. "Can you go check on my girl? She's due to wake up soon."

"Sure thing," Mia raised her eyebrows at him pointedly, nodding over his shoulder, before turning around and walking toward her house. Dom glanced to the side, and then did a double-take when he saw Letty walking up the driveway, running her fingers through her hair as she approached the group of people. Leon was the first one to get up, walking over to her and throwing his arms around her petite frame. Her laughing travelled over to Dom, and he felt his body tighten instinctively.

"Hey, Let!" Jesse was coming down the steps of the house, open bottle of beer in his hand, and grinned as he saw his favourite Latina joining them, Leon's arm wrapped around her shoulder. She gave the kid a fist bump and then smiled over at Roman and Tej, before looking over to where Dom was standing at the barbecue.

"Hey, Dom," she gave him a small, hesitant smile.

"Hey, Letty," Dom gave her a lopsided smile back, and her face cleared slightly, looking a little less worried at his reaction. "You still like your steak the same way?" He asked. "Completely overcooked and ruined?"

"You mean perfection?" Letty shot back at him. "Of course."

"You realize you completely ruins the steak!" Dom protested.

"Sorry, man," Letty smirked. "I'm really not into my steak running off my plate and mooing in disgust." Dom rolled his eyes but there was a smile on his face as he looked back down to where he was shuffling meat around. Leon and Jesse took over the conversation, telling—practically boasting—about a couple of girls that they were seeing in a few days. Twins.

They were very proud.

"Hey, girl," Mia called as she came down the stairs. Letty's head whipped to the side and she grinned when she saw Mia, with Hadley in her arms, walking over to her. "I'm glad you came."

"Oh, Let," Dom put down the barbecue fork he was using and reached into his back pocket. "I remembered to bring this." He took a step closer and Letty grinned as she took in from him, their fingers brushing momentarily as she slipped the necklace over her head. Dom stared at her for a moment before giving her a quick smile and going back to tend to the barbecue.

"Thanks," she said to him before turning back to where Mia was standing directly behind her now, Hadley bouncing around in her arms, clearly fully woken up from her afternoon nap.

"Gisele with you?" Mia asked.

"Not today," Letty shook her head. "She worked yesterday, so her and Han didn't see each other, so they're out today, being all romantic and shit."

"You owe the swear jar!" Jesse shouted from where he was now sitting back down, next to Leon. Letty rolled her eyes good naturedly before looking back at Mia and Hadley. Her whole face seemed to light up as the little girl recognized Letty and let out an excited squeal, lifting her hands in the air. Mia laughed as she held Hadley out to Letty, who took her, her face instantly dissolving into an expression of complete adoration as she held Hadley up in the air.

"Hey, my darling girl," she cooed as she lowered Hadley toward her face, nuzzling her nose against her soft skin and grinning as the little girl giggled and patted her cheeks with her tiny pudgy hands. "Should we go over and see what Uncle Leon is doing? Aye?" She put Hadley on her hip, holding her easily with one arm as she walked over to the couch. Jesse moved over to give her space, and snubbed out his cigarette, blowing out the rest of the smoke from the corner of his mouth in the opposite direction of the baby.

"You almost ready?" Mia asked as she joined Dom at the barbecue.

"Yeah, just another few minutes," he told her. Brian was coming out of the house, holding the glass dish that Mia had used to make a lasagne, tee-towels wrapped around the dish to stop himself from burning his hands. He greeted Letty before putting the dish down on the plate and walking over to his girlfriend. He slung an arm over Mia's shoulder and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "She looks like a natural," Brian said, jerking his head over to where Letty was sitting between Leon and Jesse, holding Hadley in a standing position on her knees. She was bouncing a very happy looking Hadley up and down, smiling and making faces at the girl. "She actually kind of looks like Hadley's mum," he said observantly with a shrug. He didn't think twice about what he had said until the Toretto siblings both looked at him for a long, blank moment, and then Dom turned back stonily to the barbecue, stabbing at the steak and depositing it onto the plates.

"Dumbass," Mia hissed at him, slapping her ignorant boyfriend over the back of the head.

 _What did you guys think about it? You like it?_

 _I'll send out a preview for a review :) xx_

 _So what have ya'll got planned for Valentines day? Me and the hubby have a date with_ Deadpool, _burgers and beers. It's going to be beautiful ;)_


	17. Chapter 17

_So we're starting on some proper Dotty action now. I apologize for any mistakes made, my editing skills leave a lot of be desired. Hope you enjoy;_

The day was dragging out and Letty was feeling her eyelids get heavy as she sat at her desk. It was a hot afternoon, the kind of afternoon where if it was the weekend, she would be in her bikini at the beach, or sunbathing on the balcony of her apartment in just a pair of shorts, and the heat and lack of sleep from the past few days was starting to get to her. As much as she tried to ignore it, the reason behind her tossing and turning in her bed was all because of one person.

Dom.

Or maybe it was two.

Maybe it was Hadley as well?

She huffed under her breath as she picked up her tall glass of ice tea and took a sip, trying to snap herself out of her thoughts. Gisele had commented that she looked tired that morning, and Letty hadn't acknowledged it verbally, but had made sure she had dapped more concealer under her eyes. She flexed her fingers and rolled her neck, trying to wake herself up and focus her attention, looking down at the papers on her desk.

* * *

 _"You're kidding, right?" Letty asked, a look of disbelief on her face. Dom grinned at her, purposefully opening his door and stepping outside. Letty's whole body was practically vibrating with excitement as she opened her own door and got out. It was a sticky hot day, and she was only wearing a dark bikini top, a tiny pair of swim shorts and sandals. They had decided to go for a drive, and when Tony had told them to take his girl out for a spin, they had both almost gone into shock. "You know he might kill you, right?"_

 _"Yeah, well," for a moment Dom hesitated but then he shrugged. "I guess he can only kill me if he finds out, right? So don't crash or anything."_

 _"I'm insulted that you're doubting my driving skills," Letty glared at him as they walked around the car, meeting at the bonnet. Dom just rolled his eyes and leaned down to kiss her hard on the mouth._

 _"I would never doubt your driving skills," he murmured and she grinned up at him. She was practically skipping as she past him and walked toward the drivers side of the 1970 Dodge Charger. She slid into the leather seat and flexed her fingers around the wheel, chewing down on her lower lip. Dom settled into the passenger seat, his eyes never leaving Letty as she slid the car into first gear and pressed her foot down on the accelerator._

 _They twisted their way through the desert, and Dom was laughing at the look of glee on Letty's face. He hadn't been lying when he said that he didn't doubt her driving skills. He had only been allowed behind the wheel of the car a handful of times, and he would never trust anyone else while the car was in his care, but he trusted Letty. His girl was almost as good as him, and she loved this car almost as much as him and Tony. It was almost three when Dom pointed to a pull off further up the road. She slid the car slowly to the side, getting out and stretching, grinning as she pulled her hair back in a ponytail._

 _"You have absolutely no idea how gorgeous you look behind the wheel of that car," Dom breathed as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She laughed him off as he kissed her forehead, and then her nose, and her cheeks, and then slowly kissed down the curve of her neck. The smile dropped off her face when his tongue flicked out over her salty skin, and her eyes fluttered shut. His hands smoothed down over her hips, his fingers kneading her ass as his lips found hers once more._

 _"We should..." Letty began as he nipped at her lower lip. "We should probably..." she sounded a little breathless as his tongue dipped into her mouth and tasted her. She lost herself in the kiss for a moment and then let out a laugh, pulling away from him. "We should probably go back. I'm pretty sure that if we're out too much longer, your dad is going to send out the cops."_

 _"Aw," Dom whined. "Do we really have to?"_

 _"Yes," Letty giggled as she pulled herself out of his arms. "Yes, we do."_

* * *

"Letty...Letty!" Gisele snapped her fingers in front of Letty's face and the Latina's head jerked upward. "Shit, girl," Gisele rolled her eyes. "Anyway, like I was saying," she gave her a pointed look. "I'm going back to Han's after work, but we really need to go shopping. Could you be a babe and go?"

"Yeah, yeah," Letty muttered. "We got a list all written out?"

"I've just got in on my phone, I'll text it to you, yeah?" Gisele grinned at her.

"Sure thing," Letty sighed and looked at the time in the bottom corner of her computer screen. It was just after four-thirty, which meant she could get away with leaving now. She packed up her things, called out a goodbye to Owen, who gave her a half-hearted wave before going back to work, and then she was out the door. She assumed that Gisele was going to get a ride with Han, so she left the building and steered her house out of the underground parking lot. At a traffic light, her phone pinged with the shopping list that Gisele had sent her, and she scanned it over, huffing under her breath as she read it. She rolled her eyes as she turned up her music.

She reached the store and turned off her car, getting out and wheeling a grocery trolley in. The place was buzzing with afternoon shoppers; harried mothers trying to keep their children under control, husbands in suits squinting at the scrawl their wives had sent them in with and kids in school uniforms.

"Athenos cucumber dill hummus?" She muttered to herself. "We don't have money for this kinda shit, G." She glared at the shelves as she began on the list. Most of the stuff on the list were the basics, but Gisele definitely had expensive tastes when it came to her dinners and snacks. Letty couldn't even pronounce some of the words, and she gave up when she got halfway through the store and couldn't even find the right aisle. "White cheese old barn brie...What the fuck is wrong with normal cheese?" There was a snort behind her and she looked over her shoulder and then raised her eyebrows in surprise when she saw Dom standing there, Hadley strapped into the trolley.

"Talking to yourself?" He asked her with an amused smile.

"Gisele," Letty said as she turned around with the two cheese in her hand. One of them was the standard block of cheese, and the other was about a quarter of the size, wrapped in fancy white and gold wrapping that cost about three times the amount. "She has expensive tastes."

"Yeah, I get that vibe from her," Dom laughed. "I can imagine that Han is going to need to buy a pretty damn big ring to make her happy."

"He will," Letty agreed with a nod and a smile. She looked down at Hadley and smiled, reaching out to touch her finger against the girls cheek. She was rewarded with a giggle and a grin. "You guys just started?"

"Yeah," he nodded, looking at her own trolley and licking his lower lip. "You wanna walk together?"

"Yeah, sure," Letty gave him a small smile.

"Have you picked what cheese you're going to go with?" Dom asked with a raised eyebrow. She sighed as she looked down at the items in her hand before shrugging and throwing them both in the trolley. The three of them fell into an easy rhythm, going up and down each aisle and tossing items in. Hadley was fully awake, but she was quite content to chew on the rubber ring in her fist, giving her dad and the Latina gooey smiles every few minutes.

"Must have been a bit to adjust to," she noted as they stopped by diaper section. She wouldn't have a clue which one would have been the brand or type to go for, but Dom easily picked two up and threw them into the trolley. "I mean, we were going out every Friday and Saturday night. And now...You go out for a movie and a few drinks and then you're home by midnight."

"It's fine," Dom shrugged as they moved to the baby wipes further down the aisle. "It's better than fine, it's good, actually," he looked down at Hadley, who let go of her rubber teething ring and reached out to touch her dad's hand, which was on the railing of the trolley. "Look at her," he grinned and turned his hand over, so that her tiny hand was resting on his palm. "She's worth every second." Letty felt a sudden tightness rush over her and she swallowed hard, looking away from the two and staring down at her trolley. "Anyway, uh—I feel like we've talked about me a bit. What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know how it is," Letty shrugged. "Normal college experience. Entered some wet t-shirt competitions, had pillow fights in my underwear at sleepovers, slept with one of my professors to get an A." Dom stared at her for a second before he saw the serious expression on her face slip and he let out a laugh.

"You're full of bull," he grinned at her, tilting his head to the side.

"Yes, I am," Letty laughed. Dom shook his head as he laughed with her, and Hadley joined in, waving her hands in the air. "I've been pretty boring. Lived on campus for my first year, but it was insanely expensive, even though I got a part time job. Gisele was in a couple of my classes, studying for the same degree, and we moved in together in the second year. She was already with Han then, so she wasn't into any of the partying every weekend bullshit, which was good, because I just wanted to get through Uni. We got pretty close, and now I can't shake her."

"She seems pretty awesome," Dom said.

"She is," Letty nodded. The smile dropped off her face and she raised her eyebrows. "She was the one that dragged my ass out of bed when I found out about Hadley." Dom's own smile faded and he swallowed hard. Letty took in a deep breath and pushed her hair away from her face. "And she's also the one who convinced me to come back here." They turned the corner to the next aisle in silence. Letty bent down to pick up crackers from the bottom shelf and then paused when she saw the serious look on Dom's face.

"I'm glad you came back," he told her. Letty pulled the corner of her lower lip into her mouth before nodding.

"So am I," she agreed. They walked in relative silence, reaching the last aisle when Hadley started to get a little fidgety. She bounced around in her seat and threw her teething ring on the ground. By the time they joined the queue for one of the tills, she was grizzling. "You unpack," Letty said, picking Hadley up out of the seat and putting her on her lap. The little girl settled down almost straight away, taking a handful of hair and threading it through her pudgy fingers, resting her head against Letty's chest. Dom tried to ignore how perfect the two of them looked together, unpacking Letty's trolley first and then putting up a divider before unpacking his own one. The woman behind the till worked quickly through the groceries. Letty paid for hers and awkwardly tried to pack her bags into her trolley while still holding onto Hadley.

"Aw, that girl is absolutely darling," the older cashier smiled and tilted her head to the side. She had just finished with Dom's groceries and she reached out a finger to touch Hadley on the nose. The little girl blinked slowly, but other than that, didn't react. She was clearly ready for her afternoon nap. "You two make a pretty picture of a family," the woman said as she looked between the three of them. Dom and Letty looked over at each other, both going red in the face like teenagers.

"Oh, no, we're not—"

"We're not together—"

The two of them were spluttering and Hadley chose that moment to let out a grumpy cry.

"We should get going—"

"I think we should go—"

They broke off again, and the older woman gave them a knowing smile as they hustled out of the store.

 _What are you guys thinking?_

 _You enjoying it?_

 _Leave a few words about what you think, and I'll send you out a preview :) xx_


	18. Chapter 18

_Hey, pretty people! So we're seeing things from Dom's point of view in this chapter. I apologize for any mistakes made._

Dom pursed his lips as he looked over at his daughter. It had been a warm day, although the part of the day where the harshest sun was out was over now, and so Dom was happy with letting Hadley have free reign in the backyard, with sunblock slathered over her skin and a hat on her head. She was happily crawling around the fenced off backyard, digging her little hands into the grass and trying to pull up the green blades. There were a couple of her toys spread around her, as well as one of her blankets for when she tired herself out and just ended up collapsing. She hadn't really slept for her normal amount of time when she had had her afternoon nap, so Dom was hoping that she would crash soon.

One of the things in the backyard was Letty's necklace.

Hadley had abducted it again.

Dom grinned as he remembered the two of them, at the grocery store. Between the checkouts and their cars, she had actually fallen asleep, her head buried in Letty's chest with one hand clasping the necklace that Dom had only just given back to her. They had carefully switched her between them, and in an attempt not to wake her up, Letty had just told him to take the necklace back again.

"Da!" Hadley cried out, holding up a clump of dirt that she had managed to claw up proudly.

"Please don't put that in your mouth—and now it's in your mouth," Dom shook his head with a grin as he stretched out an arm to his daughter. He brushed the lump of dirt out of her hands and then laughed at the disgusted look on her face as the dirt already in her mouth didn't taste anywhere near as good as she hoped. "Yeah, baby. It doesn't taste so great, does it?" He laughed again as she stuck out her tongue, trying to spit it all out. "Well, it builds the immune system," he told her as she continued to spit out the dirt.

She crawled away from the spot and onto another, reaching out to grab at Letty's necklace, which seemed to quickly becoming her new favourite toy, and then laid down flat on her stomach, gnawing away at Letty's pendant.

* * *

 _"I love you, Leticia Carmen Hadley Ortiz. I love you more than...More than words can describe," Dom managed to say in a broken whisper. He could see the way she was looking with him, just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and he took in a sharp breath before he continued. "And that's why I'm telling you that—"_

 _"Don't you say it," Letty said to him. Dom felt as though everything was imploding around him. He couldn't even look at her, because if he did, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to finish what he knew he had to do. He could feel Letty's body shaking, and he hated that it was him who was causing her to go through this pain. But he had been thinking about it, it had been clashing around in his head as well as the angst that had been burning up inside of him since he first had the news delivered to him by the two policeman at his front door. "Don't you say it—"_

 _"I'm telling you that you need to go," he said, his voice catching in his throat. "I'm telling you that you're going to be better off—"_

 _"Dom—" he let out a short breath through his nose and cut her off. There was no way in hell he was going to let her try and talk him out this._

 _"Letty, this is hard enough, but you're not going to change my mind," he said. He just...He couldn't handle this right now. He couldn't deal with her. He let go of her hands, and virtually pushed her away until she was standing, and he stood up with her so that she couldn't try and sit down again. And then he turned his eyes to look out the window, because he just couldn't look at her when he said this. "It's the best thing—"_

 _"If you're telling me to leave, you fucking look at me, Dominic Toretto." Even now, when he could hear the tell-tale sign of her voice beginning to shake and thin out, as though she was going to cry, she remained firm. Her whole body remained tense and strong, just like she always was. He glanced down at her once, and saw the way her eyes were glowing with unshed tears. "Don't you take the cowards way out here, Dom—"_

 _"I'm doing this for you, don't you understand?" He finally looked properly at her. "I'm not...I can't do this right now. I can't look after you, and Mia, and me—"_

 _"I'm not asking you to look after me, Dom!" Letty cried. "When have I ever asked you to look after me?!"_

 _"That's my job, Letty! It's my job to be strong, and protect, and it's also my job to just be there for you, and I can't do that right now!" She was stubborn as hell—that was what he loved about her, what had drawn him to her in the first place. And once she set her mind to something, there wasn't anything that was going to change her mind—even though he was doing this for her. He couldn't be strong enough for her, not now, and not anytime in the near future. Not in the way that she deserved. "I don't know how long it's going to be before I can do that—" he was trying to make her understand._

 _"You know I would wait forever for you, Dom—"_

 _"But you shouldn't have to," Dom said bluntly. They could argue until they were blue in the face, and even then, they still wouldn't agree. "You're eighteen, Letty, and you're too young too be dealing with this. I want you to take the spot at San Fran, and I want you to get drunk and get some shitty part time job and drag yourself out of bed on Friday mornings to go to lectures," it was killing him to say all of this. But he needed her to know that he only wanted what was best for her. It was all he had ever wanted. "I want you to meet new people and try new things, and I...Shit, Letty, I just want you to be happy..." she was glaring at him like he was the worst person on the planet. "I'm doing this for you, Letty."_

 _"No, Dom," she finally told him. "You're doing this for you, Dom. Because you're all caught up in your head and you don't think you deserve to be happy right now." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room. Dom's throat felt like it was closing in as she slammed the door shut and left him alone. He had a feeling that it was the last time he was going to see her—at least for a long time._

 _It was then that everything finally clicked._

 _His parents were gone._

 _His mother; who had teased him about dating Letty, and sung under her breath when she cooked, and still stocked_ Finding Nemo _plasters in the bathroom for when her family got cuts and scrapes._

 _She was gone._

 _His father; who had shared his loved of cars, who had taught him how to drive and always just seemed to understand what was wrong even when Dom didn't know how to put things into words._

 _Gone. Forever._

 _And now Letty..._

 _For the first time, Dom let himself let go. He sobbed, his body curling up on the bed, and let himself cry until his throat was scratchy and his eyes were aching._

* * *

Dom was snapped out of his daydream when he realized that Hadley was trying to get his attention, tapping her little hands against his legs. He looked down at her, frowning as he took in her gorgeous face and the fact she still had Letty's necklace in her mouth, drooling all over at as she grinned up at him.

He had made a mistake when he had broken up with Letty.

It had been about two months later that he had realized she had been right. He had taken the easy way out at the time, because he didn't want her to see him at his worst. She had only ever seen him at his best, at his strongest, and he couldn't bear the thought of her seeing that disappear. He had this irrational thought that Letty wouldn't love him anymore, even though when he started thinking a little more clearly, he knew that that was completely untrue.

It was at that point that he had fallen, and sort of gone off the rails.

After breaking up with Letty, he had cried, but then he had pulled himself together, knowing that he needed to put on a face. And for a few months that had been enough. Sometimes he was quick to anger, and he saw Mia flinch when he raised his voice, and his boys walked around like he was about to blow his top at any moment. So maybe it wasn't sometimes that he was quick to anger, more like all the time. But he had survived. And he had told himself that it was because he had done the right thing—that he was doing the right thing.

But it was when he was at home one Saturday night, stone cold sober, looking through photos in an old family album. There were a couple of older pictures, ones where his father and mother were looking young and stress-free, before they had kids. In one of the photos, his father was glaring into the camera. Dom remembered talking with his dad about this photo, laughing, thinking it was funny that his usually happy father was looking so angry. Tony had told him that it was when they were in process of opening their garage for the first time. They were broke, Amanda was pregnant with Dom, they had to take out a second mortgage on the house and they were falling behind on their payments. It had felt like the world was collapsing in on them, and Tony had told Dom that he was ashamed of some of the things he did. He had pushed Amanda away and buried himself in the garage. He told himself that it was the best thing—Amanda was pregnant and she could only worry about that right now.

Tony had told Dom that he was wrong. Being married, being with someone, it was about sharing the worry. It was a partnership.

He had already screwed that up, and he didn't have a chance to fix it.

That was when he had started drinking, almost twenty-four seven. And going out almost every night, coming home with a different girl without bothering to learn her name.

But now he had another chance.

"Hey, you want to go to Aunty Mi's for a bit?" Dom asked. Hadley just grinned in response, which Dom took as an affirmative. Mia looked confused when he showed up on their doorstep, but she was more than happy to take Hadley. He said that he would only be half an hour—not long at all. She asked where he was going, but he was vague, just said there were some loose ends he needed to tie up. She probably thought he was going to work to finish something up, she definitely didn't think that he was going to be parked up outside Letty's apartment building. "Okay..." Dom let out a harsh breath as he got out of the car.

He took the steps up to her apartment and rapped his knuckles against the door. For a moment, there was complete silence, and he wondered if maybe she was out, but then there were footsteps getting closer to the door and it swung open. Letty stood there, a surprised smile spreading across her face as she saw him. For a moment, he couldn't talk—the almighty Dominic Toretto was scared shitless—and then, pretty damn inelegantly, he blurted out,

"Will you go out with me? On a date?" Letty's smile dropped off her face as she stared back at him. "It doesn't need to be a big thing, just I—"

"No," she interrupted him.

 _So? What do we think?_

 _I just want to spazz out about a couple of things. One, over the past month or so I've finally started binging on_ Teen Wolf. _I brought every season I could off eBay and watched at every free moment I could. I'm completely fucking in love Dylan O'Brien and Tyler Hoechlin. God, they're absolute baaaabes. And the kid who played Isaac. I can't get over his face. He so...Like, sweet looking, but completely sexy at the same time. Gosh._

 _And the other thing is the show_ Shadowhunters. _I was really let down when it first started, the first couple of episodes were, well, absolutely terrible. To be honest. But it's gradually gotten better, and I actually quite like the last two episodes. And Matthew Daddario as Alec? Oh. My God. OhmyGOD! He's just...*sighs dreamily*_

 _Leave me a review, and I'll send out a preview :)_


	19. Chapter 19

_Hey, pretty people! So, here's the next chapter. The ending of the last chapter was just a little bit abrupt, but don't worry, I have a plan! Haha._

"No," Dom repeated back to her, his heart sinking in his chest at her rapid response. That hopeful feeling that had been rising on his way over had collapsed and he knew that his disappointment was all over his face. The smile that had been on her face had disappeared, and she was now staring back at him, her eyes wide. "Uh," he forced out a short, bitter laugh and rubbed a hand over his shaved head, his fingers scratching at his scalp as he wondered how they were supposed to come back from this. Things had just become better between them, and now he had put them in this position, and _fuck_ , he should have thought this through better. "Uh, okay, um..."

"Why?" Letty spoke again. He noted that her hand was clenched around the dooframe, her knuckles white. Dom looked back to her face, and noted that at least she didn't look angry. Confused and a little bit worried, but not angry, or like she was going to punch him in the mouth.

"I want to see if there's still something here," Dom answered honestly. Letty stared at him for a long minute before letting out a short, humourless laugh.

"Then the answer is still no," she replied. Dom frowned and steeled himself.

"Then why did you ask?" He shot back at her.

"Well, I _know_ there's still something here," Letty fired right back. "That's pretty damn obvious to anyone who see's us together—or so I've been told. So if you're still not sure—still trying to sort out where you are in your head—then the answer is no."

"And if I say it's because I do know there's something still there and I want to see if it's something that we can actually build on? To see if we could...Be a couple again. Not like before, because before we were young and naïve and that's not what we could ever have now, but something else—something more, " Dom wondered if he had pushed it to far—the words sounded pretty strange coming out of his mouth. He really wasn't good when it came to putting his thoughts into words, and they sounded kind of stupid when they were finally spewing out. But Letty wasn't shooting him down, so he just let them linger in the air. Finally, she nodded.

"Okay," she said, keeping her face carefully neutral.

"Okay?" Dom repeated back to her.

"You just gonna parrot everything I say?" She mocked.

"You're not going to change your answer this time?" He asked.

"Nope."

"You sure?" He double-checked.

"Well, if you keep standing here and annoying me I might," she snipped, but there was a half smirk on her mouth, softening the blow of her words. Dom couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I have one condition," she quickly added.

"What's that?"

"You bring a chaperone," she told him, the smirk on her face lifting to an actual smile, her face relaxing. Dom frowned slightly at her request.

"A chaperone? What are we—sixteen?"

"If we had a chaperone when I was sixteen, things would have been a whole lot different between us two," she pointed out, a playful smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. That relaxed him a little in turn. "No, I mean Hadley. You have to bring Hadley." Dom grinned again.

"I can arrange that."

* * *

"Where were you?" Mia asked as Dom let himself into her and Brian's house. The backdoor was wide open, so that the sun was pouring through, and Mia was sitting on the ground, resting back against the side of the sofa, with Hadley propped up between her legs, fast asleep. "Did you have to go into work?"

"Nope," Dom called as he walked through the kitchen to the fridge, picking up a beer from the fridge and then joined the two in the lounge.

"Then where did you go?" Mia pressed. Dom gnawed down on his lower lip for a moment as he snapped the cap off the bottle of beer and sat down on the arm of the couch. The stupid grin that had been plastered on his face when Letty had finally agreed to go out with him came back and Brian raised his eyebrow at his friend.

"What's going on, man?" Brian asked as he sipped his own beer.

"I asked Letty out," Dom finally indulged them. Mia's eyebrows shot up in surprise while Brian's just furrowed.

"And? And?!"

"Shush, you'll wake up Hadley," Dom said to her, but he couldn't hold back that goddamn grin. "She said yes."

"Oh my god!" Mia cried out, and this time there was movement from Hadley, the toddler squirming slightly in her lap. The three adults went quiet as they waited for her to wake, but she settled back down, resting her head back on Mia's thigh. "Oh my god," Mia repeated again, in a lower volume. "I can't believe that!"

"Neither can I," Dom admitted. "But, it's just a date. It doesn't mean we're...You know, back together or anything, so don't go planning happy families in your head."

" _You_ are, though," Brian suddenly interjected and the Toretto siblings went quiet as they looked over at him. He sighed and put down the bottle of beer in his hand onto the floor by his feet. "Look, I don't know Letty as well as you two do. I barely know anything about her at all. But all I've heard is that you guys broke up, she left, and then you went completely off the radar." Mia sighed and Dom's lips pursed together. "What's to say that's not going to happen again? And this time you've got Hadley to worry about."

"Brian," Mia began warningly.

"No, Mia," Dom interupted her. "It's okay." Brian clasped his hands in front of him and sighed.

"I'm not saying I don't like her, because from everything I've seen—I do like her. But..."

"It wasn't Letty's fault," Dom told the blonde man. "None of it was Letty's fault."

"You were in a shitty place, man! And she just left you!"

"No," Dom said firmly. "I told her to go. I told her I didn't want her here. She left because she knew that's what I asked her to do." Brian parted his lips to say something, but Dom just shook his head. "Brian, this is something that you don't want to argue with me about." Mia looked a little concerned as her eyes flitted between her boyfriend and her brother, but Brian wisely kept his mouth shut. The air in the room was tense for a few minutes before Mia took in a deep breath.

"So do you know when this date is going to take place?" She asked.

"I'm not sure," for the first time since he had walked into the house he looked a bit confused, hesitant. "Um, I'll figure that out later." Mia laughed her head and shook her head.

"Just remember, this is Letty we're talking about. You better not leave planning this to the last second because she'll call you out on it," she reminded him. Maybe her words would have scared another guy, but they just filled Dom with this warm feeling that only Hadley had been the one to give him in the past few years.

"I won't leave it to the last minute," Dom said. "But..." he took in a deep breath and the smile once again disappeared from his face. "It's just a date. It's just a first date. If anything, this is the stupidest idea I've ever had, because if it turns to shit, then we're going to be in an even worse place than we're in now." He started to feel panic rising in his throat, the same way he felt when Letty had answered 'no' to him and he wanted to kick himself for being so stupid and thinking that things would be different this time around. Mia reached out to squeeze his knee.

"Dom, it's going to be okay," Mia assured him quietly. "You just...You need to remember that you guys are different people now. Even if it doesn't work out the way you want it too, you're both a lot more mature now—and you'll be able to get past it."

"I guess so," Dom didn't like the sound of that.

This wasn't something that he just wanted to move on from.

He wanted this.

He wanted her.

* * *

"You what?!" Gisele cried out, almost spitting out her drink. Letty gave her a look of concern as she reached over to pat her friend on the back.

"Are you okay?" Letty asked with a half laugh.

"Okay, don't change the subject," Gisele made a show of swallowing the rest of her mouthful and then pushing her drink aside. She clasped her hand in front of her and then looked at Letty levelly. "So...You said yes? He asked you out and you said yes?!" Her voice was rising again and Letty sighed.

"Shit, girl," she muttered. "You need to dial it back a notch."

"No way!" Gisele stated as she got up from her seat and circled around to the other side of the bench to where Letty was standing. "You were the one who was all like; no, me and Dom are never getting back together. That's not going to happen. We are too different. Everything we had is in the past." She put on a high pitched voice that was undoubtedly meant to be her mimicking Letty, and the Latina just rolled her eyes at her friend. "And now you've agreed to go out on a date with him!"

"Are you...Mad?" Letty really wasn't too sure how to gauge her friends reaction.

"No! I'm not mad, I'm just surprised," Gisele rolled her eyes. "God. I just want to know what changed your mind?"

"I don't know...I think—I don't know," Letty shrugged. "It's just a date."

"Yeah, and we all know where date's end up," Gisele smirked. "You start all high school, standing a few steps apart and acting all coy. Then there's the slip of the arm around the shoulder in the middle of the movie. And then there's the drive home and the sneaky hand on your lap...And then you end up making out in the backseat—" Gisele was wiggling her eyebrows lewdly and Letty rolled her eyes.

"We're taking Hadley," she stated, ruining her friends monologue.

"Wait, what?" Gisele took a step back. She thought for a moment and then shrugged. "That's okay, you can totally work around that. She'll fall asleep, you two can get it on in the _front_ seat, rather than the back."

"You're a horny bitch, you realize that?" Letty laughed.

"That's why you love me," Gisele smirked. "So what are you guys going to do?"

"I don't know," Letty shrugged again. "We haven't figured out semantics."

"Well when you do," Gisele raised her eyebrows. "Make sure you tell me straight away. Because then we can start on planning your outfit."

 _Sooooo? What do we think?_

 _You guys liked it?_

 _Please leave a review, let me know what you think, and I'll send you a preview of the next chapter :) x_

 _OMG - I'm off to see_ Batman vs Superman _tonight! OMG OMG OMG OMG! Batman all the way!_

 _Oh, and mini hyperventilation fit over here_ — _maybe I'm a little late to the bus over here, but has everyone heard of Troye Sivan? I'm completely in love with that! He's absolutely incredible! I cried when I watched the_ Blue Neighbourhood _trilogy. If you haven't already listened to his stuff_ —do it!


	20. Chapter 20

_Next chapter, pretty people :) Bit of a quicker update this time, but I know you were all looking forward to their date, so here we go..._

"Who goes on a date in the middle of a Saturday afternoon?!" Gisele was more stressed about this than Letty was. Letty was sitting on her bed in a pair of black underwear and a plain black bra, looking bored out of her brain. She had been more than ready to just throw on a sweatshirt and a pair of cut off jeans, but Gisele had looked positively horrified by the thought. "I mean, you date at night. At least the first couple of times! There's an understanding that _that's_ what the first date is all about! So then he see's you at your best, with the makeup and a dress and—"

"You realize that was never a thing with us, right?" Letty laughed. "He knew me long before I even knew what make up was. Shit, we've already slept together and done the whole morning breath thing—"

"That's not the point!" Gisele gasped out. "This is starting all over again, remember? You're like a—like a reborn virgin when it comes to him." Letty raised her eyebrows and then laughed again.

"Let's just remember that he was the one who originally _took_ my virginity," Letty smirked. Gisele threw her hands up in the air in annoyance and let out a huff before turning back to the closet. Letty laughed and got up, walking over to join Gisele and reaching in to grab a sweatshirt. "This one will be fine," she stated.

"No, it won't!" Gisele snapped, snatching it off her and throwing it back in the closet.

"Oh my _god_! This is crazy!" Letty blindly reached in and grabbed another shirt blindly. "This is it! This is what I'm gonna wear! So you can stop your psycho-ness." Gisele pursed her lips, not looking at all happy with Letty's choice but clearly realizing that she didn't have much of a say in the matter. The sweatshirt was a grey, off the shoulder one with a v neck and a couple of ties lacing the two sides together. She paired it together with the cut off denim shorts she had planned on wearing from the start and then pulled her hair back in a ponytail.

"Oh no!" Gisele snapped. "I'm drawing the line there! A sloppy ponytail? What, you want to be friend-zoned for the rest of your life?!"

"You are taking this way too seriously," Letty shook her head.

"Just let me do your hair and make up," Gisele wheedled.

"Minimal," Letty relented. "Absolutely minimal," she said warningly. Gisele grinned and fussed over her. She ran a brush through her hair, and then rubbed some mousse in her hands and then tangled it in Letty's hair. Then she got to work with Letty's face, keeping to her friends request to keep to a light layer of makeup. She put some blusher on her cheeks and then some faint gold eye shadow on her eyelids. Then she swiped a light coloured gloss over her mouth.

"Perfect," Gisele smiled. "Now, I want you to mess all of this perfection up making out with your ex boyfriend." There was a knock at the door, and it was almost comical, the way the two spun their heads toward the door, their eyes widening. "That's him."

"When I get back, please don't be getting my bridal party ready," Letty was still joking, but then a pained look came over her face. The fact that she was going out with Dom...It felt as though it was just sinking it. Gisele had been handling all the excitement with the date, and Letty hadn't really been thinking about it—she had been forcing herself not too. And now it was all sinking it, what she was doing, and she had to admit, she was really beginning to panic.

"Hey!" Gisele grabbed her hands and snapped her out of her thoughts. "Just breathe, okay?"

"What the fuck am I thinking?" Letty hissed out, the calm and playful manner suddenly gone from her face. "We've already been this path! And he has a kid now! What the hell is going on?! What did I get myself into?!"

"Letty..." Gisele cupped her friends face. "Breathe. Deep breaths, okay?"

"Okay, okay..." there was another knock at the door and Letty took in another shuddering breath. "I got this."

"That's my girl," Gisele smiled at her. "Go get him." Letty slipped on a pair of ballet flats and walked out of her room, to the front door. Her stomach was churning in circles, and for a second she thought that she was going to be sick. She reached the front door and opened the door, and Dom was standing on the other side.

And he looked just as nervous as she did.

Their eyes locked and then Dom let out a short laugh.

"You look as shit as me," he greeted her.

"Thanks for that," Letty snapped at him, but she was grinning; she knew what he meant.

"You know who doesn't look like shit?" He asked and Letty raised her eyebrow as a question. "This girl," Dom took a step to the side and pulled the stroller into view. Inside, was Hadley, looking wide awake and completely adorable in a purple shirt and black leggings, and some tiny purple vans.

"Hey, baby girl," Letty instantly felt so much better, seeing Hadley grin up at her, all gums and sparkling eyes. "Clearly you're not continuing the tradition of the swear jar without Mia around." Dom gave her a guilty smile and Letty grinned. "Did you guys take the elevator?"

"We did," Dom nodded.

"I really wouldn't suggest that," Letty made a face. "I think it breaks down, like, every second day."

"Oh really?" Dom scrunched up his nose.

"I think maybe we should carry her down the stairs," Letty suggested.

"Okay, sounds like a good idea," Dom grinned. He waited until Letty picked Hadley up out of the stroller, and Dom folded it up and easily carried it under one arm. Hadley was waving her arms about, gurgling on to her. Letty was enjoying every second, encouraging Hadley's baby talk, and Dom let them talk away, following behind them. When they reached the bottom floor, Dom unfolded the stroller and Letty put her back down.

"So where are we off too?" Letty asked, finally looking back up at Dom.

"To the park," he told her.

"The park?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Every Saturday afternoon, me and Hadley go to the park," Dom told her. "We thought you might want to come with us." Letty swallowed hard at the sentiment, at the fact that he was welcoming her into a tradition between his daughter and himself. He was still watching her, looking a little confused at her lack of answer and so she nodded. "I figured we could grab FroYo at the place next to it." She felt so relieved, at the lack of pressure there was, and nodded again.

"That sounds perfect," she nodded and smiled at him. The sun was warm and Letty was actually starting to feel better. Dom was pushing Hadley, and she was shuffled right forward in the pram, her legs swinging and banging her little fists excitedly against the front guard rail. "She really does like here," Letty laughed as Hadley let out a squeal as they reached the park.

"She loves it," Dom agreed. "FroYo?" He stopped at the cute little parlour right next to the park.

"Ooh, yes," Letty grinned as she stepped inside. The temperature was cooler inside, and Letty felt her eyes widen as she took the place in. She had only had frozen yoghurt a couple of times, and she hated to admit it to Gisele, but she kind of adored it. When Gisele had first suggested she try it, she had gone off on a tangent about how it was only for 'prissy bitches who wanted a rip off sundae'. But then she had seen all the options and flavours, and she had piled her tub high with toppings, and she was in love at first spoonful.

"You look like a kid in a candy store," Dom noted as she picked up the biggest sized tub.

"Remember that time we went to Candyland?" Letty raised her eyebrows at him. He nodded. "Well this time is even better because I actually have the money to buy everything I want!" She was almost bouncing from foot to foot and Dom couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm pretty sure you're enjoying it more than Hadley." The two of them looked down at Hadley, who had managed to swipe a brightly coloured plastic spoon from the bench that held the tubs and was chewing away on it. "Okay, let's get going." Letty used boysenberry, vanilla and passionfruit yoghurt, and then dumped unhealthy dosages of chocolate and strawberry sauce on top, as well as lollies and fruit. Dom stuck to chocolate, with strawberry sauce and then put a small amount of vanilla yoghurt into a tub and a tiny amount of chocolate sauce, and then they joined the queue to pay. "What are you doing?" Dom frowned at her as pulled a debit card out of her wallet.

"Uh, paying? You generally need to do that, or they won't let you eat it. And I will be really, really, _really_ sad if I don't get to eat this," Letty pouted at him. Dom shook his head, pulling out his wallet and nudging her out of the way.

"This may not be a fancy, five star restaurant, but it's still a date," he told her. Letty felt another flutter in her stomach, and she ducked her head to hide her shy smile behind the curtain of her hair. She was grateful that Gisele had talked her out of the sloppy ponytail, or else the slight blush on her cheeks would have been obvious to Dom. He paid for hers and passed it back to her, and then promised Hadley that he would give it to her soon. Hadley didn't understand and started whimpering under breath, her eyes filling with tears. "Come on, we better get to the park. We don't want her to start—" there was a high pitched cry as they got outside.

"Aw, darling girl," Letty reached her finger down to run along the little girls chubby cheek. For a moment, that pacified her, but when she realized that Letty wasn't handing her the little tub she had seen in her fathers hand, she continued her crying. Letty cringed and looked at Dom, but he just shook her head.

"She's fine," he told her as he turned the pram off the main footpath and onto the gravel pathway that lead toward the park. "She's just throwing a hissy fit because she's not getting her way." There were a couple of kids kicking around a soccer ball, and a couple walking a dog. The park was pretty busy, which was to be expected for a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon.

"Oh really? Sounds like someone I know," Letty teased him and nudged him in the side.

"Yeah, yeah," Dom rolled his eyes at her with a grin. They reached a clear spot on the grass and stopped. Letty settled down on the grass, folding her legs underneath her, and looked over to where Dom was getting Hadley out of the stroller. The little girl was pouting, her cheeks tear stained and her long eyelashes wet, but a smile began to grow as Dom got her out and put her on the ground in front of him. He put the tub of frozen yoghurt down in front of her, and ignoring the spoon, she just plunged her fingers right into it.

"Oh God," Letty laughed. "What a mess!" Hadley giggled as she stuck her fingers into her mouth and attempted to lick them clean. Dom laughed as well, and reached into the back of the pram, pulling out a pack of wet wipes. He wiped down her hands quickly and directed her to the spoon. Hadley gurgled happily as she started eating properly. Letty looked over at Dom, who was staring back at her. He blinked when their eyes met and he flashed her a quick smile before looking down at his own yoghurt.

By the time Hadley finished, she had made a complete mess of herself. Letty shook her head as Dom attempted to clean her down fully, although there was still a stain of chocolate on her shirt.

"So..." Letty breathed as she looked over at Dom.

"So..." he stared back at her. They both let out awkward laughs. "We're back here again."

"Actually, I don't think we ever went out on a date," Letty pondered.

"Hey!" Dom protested. "I was a kid. The idea of a date was grown up and scary. It still kinda is." Letty looked at him in disbelief.

"Says the man with a baby. That's pretty grown up!"

"Well..." Dom looked at Hadley, who had rolled on her stomach and was lifting herself onto her hands and knees. "Yeah, I guess."

"You guess?" Letty laughed. Dom grinned at her. She took in a deep breath, trying to expel the rest of the nervousness she was feeling. "Okay. So, Dom..." he raised an eyebrow at her. "What have you been up to for the past few years, apart from raising the most adorable little girl on the entire planet?" Clearly her attempt to start conversation was the right way to go, because a smile stretched over his face and he answered her easily. It felt as though the years just slipped away as they found their rhythm. There was still some tension, and the silences weren't as comfortable as they once were, but it was better than either of them had hoped for.

They walked back to Letty's apartment almost three hours later, an exhausted Hadley fast asleep in her stroller.

"I won't ask you to come back up," Letty said as they reached the steps.

"I don't mind," Dom replied.

"It's fine," Letty insisted with a grin. "I don't want you to wake her up." Dom nodded and then licked his lower lip as he scanned her face. The nervousness she had felt right back at the beginning was back, her stomach in knots as she wondered what he was going to do.

"We'll have to do this again," Dom told her, and Letty jerked her head in a nod. "Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Absolutely," Letty smiled tightly at him. Dom leaned forward, and her whole body went stiff. For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her on the mouth, but then his warm lips pressed to her cheek and she felt herself relax, glad that he knew her well enough to know that she wasn't ready for that yet. "Bye, Dom," Letty murmured, before turning and walking up the steps.

She waited until she was out of eyeshot before letting her grin almost break her face in half.

 _So? What did you all think? Let me know :)_

 _Also, have you guys heard_ Roman Holiday _by Halsey? I love pretty much anything by her, but that song is my new obsession. Also_ Storm _by Ruelle. I bloody love it xx_


	21. Chapter 21

_I apologize for any mistakes made that I've missed in editing._

Moving back to Los Angeles was the best choice that Letty had ever made.

When she had accepted the promotion from Owen, she had been worried. She had thought that maybe she was maybe making a mistake by coming back here. Sure, it was where her heart was, and it was always going to be where she considered to be 'home', but it was also where she had been broken. She had thought that maybe that part of her that Dom had ripped out of her soul was never going to be replaced, but somehow, he and Hadley were managing to bring that part of her back.

She couldn't say that she trusted him fully—not yet.

But she could trust that he would not have made her such a prominent fixture in Hadley's life if he didn't want her to be permanent. He wouldn't want to rip away someone that cared about his daughter, and that his daughter clearly adored.

There had been an uncomfortable discussion late one night, after their third date, where he had actually taken her to a restaurant, unaccompanied, so maybe their first proper date. After a few bottles of beer, Dom had admitted that he hadn't dated anyone since he had realized he was a father, and he had brought Hadley back to LA. He had asked about Owen, if there was anything serious between them. She had told him the truth; she thought he was attractive, but she didn't see a future with them. At the end of the day, he was her boss, and she liked her job. Unless she was planning on marrying the man, there really wasn't any good that could come of their relationship.

And then he had asked her if she saw a future with them; with Dom and Letty and Hadley.

She had answered that one honestly as well.

She wasn't sure.

The thought scared her—and if she was a smarter girl, she would be running for the hills. But then Hadley would give her a gummy smile. And Dom would brush his fingers against her arm. And she would get this warm glow in her stomach that would spread through her body to the tips of her fingers.

So they were a couple.

Or a couple, plus one.

But they were taking things slow; and had to remind their friends over and over again of that fact.

And there was still a conversation that they needed to have about their past, although they were both pretty good at avoidance, even though they knew it was inevitable.

"Hey, Let!" Gisele shouted from the kitchen. "Do you know where my shoes are?"

"You're gonna need to be a little more specific than that!" Letty shouted back from the lounge, where she was sitting on the ground. She made a face, her eyes wide and putting on a baby voice as she reached out to tickle Hadley lightly on her chubby stomach. "Because Aunty G is a shoe hoarder, isn't she?" Hadley giggled in response. "Can't go past a pair that look remotely cute without buying them." Hadley giggled again, before rolling over onto her stomach and crawling over to where a couple of her toys were, a metre or so away.

"I heard that," Gisele muttered as she flew back into the room, her eyes harried, and only half of her make up done. "And it's the suede purple ones!"

"Have you looked by the door?"

"In my room, yes!" Gisele practically sprinted from one end of the apartment to the other to double check by her door. Letty rolled her eyes as she lifted herself up on her knees to look by the front door and let out an exasperated breath.

"By the front door, G!" Letty shouted. Gisele came running back, following Letty's gaze to the purple heels beside the front door. The tall girl gave her an apologetic look before jerking the heels on and attempting to brush her hair at the same time. "I don't get why you go through this charade every time you go out on a date. Have you thought about just going to a movie in jeans and a hoodie?"

"We go through this because I'm a woman who likes to dress up and wear pretty things!" Gisele cried from the bathroom.

"Eh," Letty grunted and looked over to where Hadley was sucking on her Dora the Explorer teething ring, her eyes bouncing between the two voices. "I hope you don't grow up to be like that, Haddles. I can't deal with a third girly girl and all their shit. Mia and Gisele are enough."

"I heard that too!" Gisele shouted. "And you owe the swear jar!" Letty frowned, her mouth turning upside down as she looked over at the dreaded jar sitting on the cabinet beside the TV. She hated the fact that Mia had convinced Gisele it would be a good idea to bring the whole swear jar thing into their home. It wasn't like Dom cared, he knew that she tried her best to watch her tongue around Hadley, and he was one of the worst at letting things slip by. But Gisele had said that swearing wasn't very feminine, and so it would help them both.

Letty had said 'fuck being more feminine' and Gisele had ordered her to put in the first donation.

"Where are you off to tonight?" Letty asked as stretched out on her side, tickling the underside of Hadley's foot.

"Some new Italian place," Gisele replied, coming back into the room and looking a whole lot more calmer. Her make up was properly done, and her shoes were strapped on, and she was smoothing out her dress. "I won't be home tonight, I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"I don't understand why you guys don't just move in together," Letty told her as she looked over to where Gisele was finishing packing her overnight bag.

"Nope," Gisele shook her head pointedly. "I already told you. We're just taking this a day at a time."

"I'm pretty sure once you get to the two year point in a relationship, you're not counting days," Letty smirked. "That's not going slow, G, that's a full blown, in depth relationship."

"Oh yeah?" Gisele smirked right back at her. "And what would you call your little game with Dom, huh? You keep saying that you're just casually seeing each other, but it's pretty damn clear that the pair of you are still in love—and you're playing house with his baby." Letty had nothing to reply, just pursed her lips and pointedly looked back down at Hadley, who was staring up at her. "Anyway, I'm off!" She came into the lounge, bending over and dropped a kiss to Hadley's forehead, and then to Letty's cheek. "See you beauties later!"

"Bye, G," Letty called as she swept out the front door. She turned to Hadley, who's eyelids were starting to droop. "Hey, baby girl," she reached out to lightly play with Hadley's cheeks. "Hey, not quite sleep time yet. Let's get you changed first." She had already bathed the little girl, so she smelt all nice and fresh and there was that baby smell that Letty had fallen in love with so quickly.

She changed Hadley out of her onesie and checked her nappy quickly, before putting her into one of her bedtime onesies. Hadley was almost asleep by the time Letty was finished, and she was blindly opening and closing her hand out to try and grip Letty's finger. Letty cradled her in one arm, sitting down on the couch and tucking her legs up underneath her, and picked up the remote. She flicked through the channels until she came to a rerun of _CSI: Miami_ and then rested her hand on Hadley's stomach. The little girls eyes were closed, but she moved her hand instinctively toward Letty's, wrapping her little fist around Letty's thumb.

Hadley was an angel, and she had stolen Letty's heart.

It was almost an hour later when there was a soft knock at the door. Letty glanced over her shoulder and considered getting up, but then there was a scratch of a key finding the lock and the door was opening. Dom stepped inside and glanced around the apartment until his eyes found her and Hadley and his face softened into a smile.

"Hey," he greeted her quietly.

"Hi," Letty smiled back at him.

"Thanks for picking her up. Sorry, I didn't realize how late we were going to be tonight," he apologized as he kicked off his shoes and came over to stand next to the sofa, his big palm coming down to gently brush over his daughters soft, downy head.

"No, that's no problem," Letty said. "You know I don't mind." Dom shifted his eyes to hers, before his hand moved to rest behind her neck and leaned down to kiss her on the mouth. Letty felt her stomach twist up in knots as his fingers tightened in the hair at the nape of her neck and he kissed her for a few seconds longer than expected. When he pulled away, he brushed his nose against hers and then left one more kiss on her forehead before heading toward the kitchen.

"Do you mind if I grab something to eat? I went home for a shower, but I didn't eat before heading over," he said to her, not waiting for her to reply before opening the fridge door. He grabbed out her leftover dinner from last night and came around to join her in the lounge. "Let me take her," Dom said, putting down the plate of food and taking Hadley from Letty's arms. She watched with a smile on her face as he kissed his daughter on the forehead and then put her down safely on her blankets laid out on the floor. Then he took a place on the couch, near the middle; so he was only a few inches away from Letty but he wasn't crowding her.

He finished off the dinner and they watched the rest of the CSI episode before deciding to put on a movie. There was an argument between either _Mad Max: Fury Road_ or one of the originals, but Letty won in her defence for the new. Then they settled back on the couch, this time Letty putting herself right next to Dom, resting one hand on his thigh. Dom responded by wrapping an arm around her waist and holding her lightly.

They only made it about twenty minutes in before Letty was stretched out on the couch, Dom in the cradle she had created with her thighs, and their lips together. Something that Dom had realized was that Letty tasted and felt even better than she had when they were younger. _Everything_ was better than when they were younger.

He licked his way inside her mouth, his teeth brushing over her lips before sucking gently on her tongue. His hand had already pushed up her shirt, so that he was massaging circles on the soft skin of her hip, and Letty's hands were both on him; one scratching lightly at his bald scalp while the other clenched his shirt. Dom rocked into her, his cock hard in his jeans and pressing almost painfully against the zipper of his jeans. She could feel him, and Letty would be lying if she said that she wasn't wet and staining through the crotch of her underwear.

Her body jerked as one of his hands teased at the elastic of her shorts, two fingers slipping underneath and touching the skin near the apex of her legs where he hadn't touched her in a long time. Dom pulled away from her mouth to look at her eyes as he did so, searching for any indication that she wanted him to stop. Letty's breathing was erratic but she managed to give him a nod. Dom inched his fingers closer towards her burning centre and both of Letty's hands found purchase at his shoulders, her nails digging in deep to the taunt skin. Her eyes closed and she was about to let out a breathy moan, his fingers shifting the thin material of her thong out of the way when there was an unsettled cry from below them.

"Shit," Dom sighed, and then shook his head and let out a laugh. "My daughter, the cock block."

"I'm pretty sure you owe the swear jar," Letty said, her voice a little strained but giving him a small smile. "I think twice, I don't know where Mia or Gisele fall on 'cock'." Dom opened his mouth to reply when there was another cry from the ground. "I think our night may be over," she concluded, letting her body relax back into the couch, dropping her hands from Dom's shoulders. Dom nodded, rolling off her and onto the ground.

"Yeah, I should probably get this girl home," he said, straightening up and gathering up Hadley's things in the baby bag Letty had brought over. Hadley was awake and mumbling under her breath, but it wouldn't be long before she fell asleep again, especially if she was in her car set—she always fell asleep in the car. Letty walked Dom to the door, kissing Hadley on the cheek before reaching up on her tip toes to kiss Dom on the mouth. "We're continuing this, you hear me?" He gave her a cheeky grin as he gave her a quick hug, his hand squeezing her ass firmly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Letty rolled her eyes at him, but she was smiling. She waited until they reached the end of the hall and then stepped back into her apartment. She shut the door and leaned against it, still grinning, chewing down on her plump, bottom lip.

 _Now! My music obsessions since my last update! Actually, heaps of old songs have resurfaced on my iTunes. There's_ Thinking It Over _by Dana Glover, seriously this song makes my heart ache like every time I hear it. I think I obsessively listened to it when I was a teenager when I went through a break up, melodramatic child that I was. Then there's_ Pony _by Ginuwine. LOL. Don't know what's got me so into that one all of a sudden. And the third one is_ Bring Me Back To Life _by Extreme Music. Seriously, the_ Shadowhunters _show has a pretty great soundtrack, I think I've fallen in love with every song I've discovered through there!_

 _Oh gosh,_ aaaaaaaand _there's this cover of a Jesse McCartney song,_ Beautiful Soul, _by SoMo. I watched a Stydia fan video to the song, and I'm now just completely in love._

 _Oooooh, and in the post the other day, I got my Stilinski 24 hoodie. Can you tell I'm obsessed with_ Teen Wolf _just a little bit? Yes? No? Maybe? LOL._

 _As usual, please feed my obsession with songs and reviews :) It'd make me very happy, and I'll send you a preview xxx_


	22. Chapter 22

_Couple of things have happened since my last update. First thing is sad, one of my kitties died :( Not too sure how, appears as though he ate something poisonous in our neighbours yard. Me and my hubby and my second kitty are very upset. Second thing is happier, thank God; it's my birthday yesterday! Yes, Friday the 13th. LOL. I'm getting old._

"Can you believe that she's one already?" Mia breathed as she stared out the window, into the back yard where Hadley was sitting in a paddling pool, under the watchful eye of her Uncle Leon and two other mums who were there with their daughters. Leon was loving it, which was why he had insisted that he be the one to stay out there with Hadley, while Jesse was off sulking in the corner. Dom had invited a couple of the other toddlers from Hadley's day care to come over for Hadley's first birthday—Mia's idea—and it had turned out that two of the toddlers had single mothers.

At first, Leon and Jesse had rock-paper-scissored over who was going to get first dibs.

And then, once they caught a glimpse of the two woman, Leon had just said ' _screw it all_ ' and jumped right in, with Hadley as his cute little sidekick.

Bro code really flew out the window when it came to a hot woman and these two boys.

"Do you think those two are ever going to grow up?" Letty muttered as she joined Mia at the window. The girls exchanged looks and then both started laughing, shaking their heads. Brian came into the room with his hands full of plates of food, and a pink party hat perched on his head, fastened by elastic under his chin. "Well, don't you just look adorable?" Letty smirked at him.

"Damn right I am," Brian grinned back proudly at her, clearly comfortable enough with his masculinity to pull off the pointy hat.

"I do believe that you're missing something," Dom piped up, coming through the door after him, one hand holding onto his present that he had brought for Hadley, and a party hat in the other. Letty cringed and shook her head.

"I don't do pink," she protested, holding her hands up in front of her. Dom just grinned as he put the present down on the table and advanced on her, a determined glint in his eye.

"At my daughters birthday party, _you do pink_ ," he told her. Letty huffed under her breath but submitted, letting him put the hat on top and fastening the elastic under her chin. She had managed to dodge her way around the hats and the streamers so far, but she had known that she was only going to be able to do that for so long. That didn't mean she had to look happy about it though, and she made a face over at Mia who just grinned back at her. "Give me a smile, girl," Dom murmured, leaning down to kiss her neck softly before he pulled away to grab one of plastic bowls filled with sausage rolls. Letty wanted to roll her eyes at him, but she couldn't.

She had to smile.

Because everything was kind of, sort of, absolutely perfect.

"You girls got the juice boxes out there already, right?" Brian asked.

"Sure thing, babe," Mia answered him, reaching up on her tip toes to give him a quick kiss on the lips. "They're on the kids table."

"Okay," Brian picked up the two plates filled with sandwiches to go on the 'adult' table that the two girls had just finished making. "I'll just take this out." He gave Letty an easy smile as he walked past her toward the door. At first, Brian had been a little frosty when it came to the Latina. Dom had been annoyed, but Letty had said that it was endearing, and that she would feel the same way in his situation. The only reason Gisele wasn't acting that way when technically she was in the same situation as Brian, not knowing the other half of the relationship until now, was because Letty had already filled Gisele in on what had happened.

Brian was just looking out for his brother, and that was what family was about.

Letty respected that, and they had worked through it. They got on a lot better now.

"Sooooo..." Mia dragged the word out and Letty's body stiffened slightly, already knowing what was coming as she turned around to raise her eyebrows at her friend. "Come on," Mia could already see Letty's eyebrows pulling together before she even asked the question she was building up to. "You've got to give me something."

"Not really," Letty replied a little snootily.

"It's been three months," Mia answered. "That's not something casual." She gave Letty a sly look from under her eyelashes. "Not when you're sleeping over here and taking Hadley to day care the next morning." Letty's eyes widened in surprise.

"How do you know that?"

"I've seen your car here a few times," Mia replied idly. "And when I pick Hadley up in the afternoon from day care, it's been mentioned that you've been dropping her off sometimes." Letty pursed her lips together as she looked back through the window to the back yard, easily finding Dom where he was speaking with Jesse and Brian. Jesse said something, and then Dom was roaring with laughter, slapping the shorter boy on the shoulder. Letty had absolutely _no_ idea what the kid genius had said to the Cuban, but just seeing Dom laughing and happy made her smile.

"We aren't...We aren't sleeping together," Letty informed her. Mia made a face.

"Okay, I wasn't really trying to find _that_ out," she screwed up her nose in disgust. "That's kind of gross."

"What are you, twelve?" Letty snorted.

" _No_ , but that's my brother," Mia shot back. "So that makes it disgusting."

"Nothing that involves me is disgusting," Dom piped up, appearing in the doorway with a grin on his face. "What are we talking about?" He asked idly, picking up a chip from the bowl in the counter and throwing it into his mouth, putting an arm around Letty's shoulders.

"Your sex life," Mia grunted.

"Ooh," Dom shook his head and jerked his finger in a line across his throat. "That is a no-go in conversation for you." Mia was nodding her agreement as Dom turned to Letty, burying his head in her neck, taking in a deep breath of her shampoo and natural scent. "You, on the other hand, are more than welcome to discuss that with me. In _extreme_ detail," he nipped playfully at the skin of her shoulder, and Letty couldn't help it—she _actually fucking giggled_ , tilting her body to the side to meld into Dom's.

"Well, this is not okay," Mia sung out, trying to give them both grossed out expressions but not really looking at all bothered by their public display of affection. "I'm just gonna go outside."

"Yeah, give us a little privacy!" Dom shouted after her. As soon as the door shut, Dom dropped his arm from her shoulder and down to her waist, spinning her around and laughing as she squealed. He picked her up easily and put her down on the kitchen table, stepping between his legs and putting his hands on either side of her face, kissing her teasingly on the mouth.

"Do you really think this is the best place for this?" Letty asked as his kisses feathered over her jawline and then down the column of her throat. He licked and sucked at the hollow of her throat and her hands went to his shoulders, playfully pushing him away.

"Wha-at?" Dom groaned, pouting as he pulled away from her.

"I _said_ ; do you really think this is the best place for this?" Letty repeated.

"It's my house, I don't see why not," he grinned and went back to kissing her bare shoulder. Letty rolled her eyes, trying to be annoyed at him as his teeth brushed over her skin and sent shivers down on her back, but when his fingers skimmed up her side and lightly pressed down, she couldn't help but squirm as he tickled her.

"Maybe we should be outside? With your daughter?" Letty suggested.

"Hadley is the centre of my world, but right now, she is the centre of everyone else's world as well, and so she's not going to notice if I'm missing for a few more minutes," Dom said, his voice muffled as he rested his forehead against her shoulder. Letty licked her tongue along her lower lip, considering her next move, and then decided to go with it. She hooked her finger into the neck of his shirt and waited for him to lift his head and then captured his lips with her own. Dom grinned against her mouth, his hands sliding around her sides to rest on her lower back, his fingers beginning to dig into her ass.

She looked absolutely gorgeous today.

She was wearing a light blue dress that hung around the top of her thighs, leaving the rest of her legs exposed and on display, which Dom liked. He also liked how the straps were loose and kept falling off her shoulders, leaving them bare. And now she looked adorable, with the pink, pointy hat on her head.

He pushed her dress up so it was bunched around her thighs and she shuffled her ass forward on the table, lifting her legs and tightening them around his waist, her ankles hooking at his lower back. Dom's hands went back to her head, weaving their way into her thick hair and not caring that he was knotting it beyond belief. Letty's mouth fell open as his fingers massaged her scalp, scratching lightly and making goose bumps break out over her skin.

"You're going to scar children, you realize that?" Came a voice from the doorway, and Dom froze. Letty's eyes opened, and she pulled her head back slightly from his, frowning when she felt Dom's fingers tighten against her head. Letty tried to move her head to look toward the doorway, but Dom's hands were holding her face captive.

"Dom," Letty whispered, lifting her hands to cover his. "What's wrong? Who's that?"

"Yeah, Dom," it was the woman's voice from the doorway again. "What's wrong? What's so wrong with you that you can't even invite a mother to her own daughters first birthday?" Letty's eyes widened and Dom's body tensed even further.

 _Elena_.

Letty had seen pictures of her, Dom had two that he had framed in Hadley's room. There was one of Dom and Elena together, neither of them looking very happy as they stared into the camera. The second was of Elena holding Hadley, only a few hours old. Elena didn't look so good, but then, she had just gone through nine hours of child birth; it may have had nothing to do with the life style that she was leading.

"Dom," Letty repeated, taking in a deep breath and giving him a purposeful nod. He let go of her and turned around, his movements stiff.

"Dominic," Elena Neaves nodded at him, giving him a pointed smile, raising an eyebrow at the pair of them. Letty looked over his shoulder at her, not bothering to fix up her dress and hair just yet as she studied the ex girlfriend.

Elena was beautiful.

 _Threateningly_ so.

And she looked incredibly healthy, nothing like the strung out drug addict that Dom and Mia and everyone else had described her as.

"Would you mind giving us a minute?" Dom said through gritted teeth. For a moment, Letty thought about saying no, about standing at his back so that he knew that he didn't have to face her alone. But then she slid off the table and smoothed out her dress. She gave Dom's hand a squeeze and then forced her legs to walk out of the room, going out into the backyard. Mia frowned as she noticed her carefully blank expression and came over to her.

"Are you okay?" Mia asked quietly.

"Elena's here," Letty bit out.

 _Instead of songs, this time I want to rave about a couple of things I've watched on Netflix. Obviously, there's_ Jessica Jones _. Okay, I know, I know, I'm a total Marvel freak, but it's amazing! I've had a few friends who aren't into Marvel at all who watched and they were in love. The second is a documentary,_ Hot Girls Wanted. _It's kinda...Sad and shit, but it's really good. About girls who get into amateur porn and don't really know what they're getting themselves into. And then_ Sense8. _Ohmygod._ Sense8. _It is absolutely incredible. I wasn't into it at first, but I stuck with it, and we binged on the whole season in the weekend. It was unlike anything else I've watched, and I definitely recommend._

 _Oh shit!_ AND I SAW _Captain America: CIVIL WAR_ LAST WEEKEND! _Holy shit. Just as good as I had hoped. Couple of things I was a little iffy on but *sighs dreamily* it was very good. Sebastian Stan and Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner all in one movie makes me very happy :) So if anyone is a Marvel fan and wants to fangirl, don't hold back! Especially if you want to fangirl about Stucky or Sebastian Stan talking in Russian or Wanda, who I absolutely fell in love with in this movie._

 _But especially Sebastian talking in Russian, that was like a spiritual experience._

 _Let me know what you think, and I'll send out a preview for a review xx_


	23. Chapter 23

_First of all, I just wanted to say I'm sorry that it took so long to get back to all of your reviews after my last update. There was some weird syncing issue with the reviews and I wasn't able to reply to them normally, so it took a while to go through and reply to you all :( I'm sorry! Secondly, on with the chapter!_

"I want to see my daughter," Elena was demanding as Letty chased after Mia into the house.

"Mia—Mia!" Letty tried to grab the girls arm but she was determined and fast, and she was already storming into the kitchen.

"I want to see my daughter," Elena repeated as they got into the kitchen, facing off against Dom, and then glaring over his shoulder when she saw the two girls come into the room.

"You need to get the fuck out of the house," Mia hissed out.

"Aw, little sister to the rescue?" Elena taunted before her eyes met Letty's again. "And...The girlfriend?"

"Elena, this isn't the time or place to have this discussion," Dom was calm. He was far, _far_ too calm for what was going on right now. The Dom that she knew all those years ago would never be calm right now. But then again, Letty had to keep reminding herself that he had grown up. In fact, he had probably grown up better than she had, given she currently wanted to gouge Elena's eyes out with her fingernails. "We can do this another time."

"It won't be her birthday another time," Elena argued.

"This is the first time you've come to see her since I brought her here!" Dom snapped, and Letty could tell that he was reaching his breaking point. Mia was prickling beside her, clearly ready to snap again, and Letty touched her arm, taking a step forward to slip her hand into Dom's, giving it a squeeze. Elena turned her furious eyes toward Letty and looked as though she was about to growl something out when the door opened again.

"Hey, what's going on in here? Our birthday girl is getting—" Brian broke off as he saw the stand off happening in the kitchen.

"Shit," Dom sighed, rubbing his free hand over his face. Elena didn't even acknowledge his utterance, her eyes locked on Brian—or more accurately, her daughter, who was in Brian's arms. Hadley was smiling and waving her arms around, looking as adorable as ever with her little pink dress on and kicking her feet about excitedly. But the longer the room was in uncomfortable silence, the more aware she seemed to become and she fell quiet.

"Da?" She blinked expectantly at her father.

"Hadley, baby," Elena breathed, taking a few steps closer to her daughter. Dom instantly prickled, putting himself pointedly between herself and Brian.

"Let-ley?" Hadley turned her eyes toward the the dark haired Latina, only a foot or so away from her. When Letty looked over at her, everything about her demeanor softened as her gaze connected with the little girls, and Hadley's smile spread across her face again. "Let-ley!" She squealed out, holding her arms out and making grabby motions with her hands.

"Hey, darling girl," Letty murmured, leaning forward to take Hadley from Brian's grip. Hadley instantly starting babbling on, a string of words that she was just learning to say forming a nonsensical sentence. Letty could hear Dom saying something to Elena, but she couldn't focus on them.

Elena wasn't her fight—she was Dom's.

But she could still protect Hadley from it, at least for now.

So she purposefully left the kitchen, bouncing Hadley in her arms as they went to rejoin the party.

* * *

"She finally asleep?" Letty asked as Dom walked into his bedroom where she was, looking tired as he slipped out of the short sleeved shirt he was wearing and tossing it into the corner of the room.

"Yeah," he nodded as his hands went to his belt. "She's pretty hyped up."

"Well, a lot happened today," Letty reasoned. "Plus, some of the food the kids had was just laced with sugar. I think next time, we need to dial it back a little." Dom's hands paused as he was undoing his zipper and then he lifted his head and smiled over at her. Letty raised an eyebrow self consciously at him. "What?"

"No, I just...I like the way you phrase that," Dom told her. "Next time." Letty pursed her lips and gave a short nod. Dom quickly rid himself of his jeans and then slipped in bed next to her. She had been watching a movie on the TV that was hooked on a bracket on the wall opposite the bed, but she had turned the volume right down when he had come into the room. He propped himself up in the bed next to her, shuffling the pillow to a more comfortable position before letting out a sigh.

"So...Elena, aye?" Letty began. Dom snorted and shook his head, running a hand over his head before pinching at the bridge of his nose.

"Yup. That was Elena," he sighed. He went quiet for a moment and Letty wondered if maybe this wasn't the time to have this conversation, but then he leaned his head back against the wall and continued. "She looked good," he stated. "I mean...She didn't look all strung out."

"I thought that as well," Letty murmured. Dom went quiet again, swallowing hard. His hand moved under the covers of the blanket, seeking out her own before linking their fingers together and holding on tightly.

"I don't know what to do here," Dom's voice was almost so quiet that Letty couldn't hear him. "I just—I have no idea what to do." He looked over at Letty, the question etched into his face.

"I can't answer that for you, Dom," Letty told him, squeezing his hand. "This is Hadley, it's her life—and it's your life. What happens needs to be your decision." He nodded in resignation, as though knowing that was going to be her answer. "But no matter what you decide, you have my support," she assured him. Dom nodded again. He took in a deep breath through his nose and rolled his shoulders, which were taunt and tense from the stresses of the day.

"Part of me is saying that she's Hadley's mother, and that both of them have the right to be in each others lives," Dom said. "But the other part of me is saying that I don't want to let Elena in because I don't want Hadley to be screwed over again! At the moment, she doesn't remember her, she has no idea who she is, and so she can't be sad about the fact her mother was a drug addict who wanted nothing to do with her!"

"But she's not always going to be a baby," Letty whispered. "One day she _is_ going to be old enough to wonder why she only has a father, and what happened to her mother. You're an amazing father, Dom, but so was mine. And that still didn't stop me wondering what was wrong with me, and why my mum wanted nothing to do with me."

"Letty..." Dom winced as she brought up her own childhood.

"No, I'm not saying things are the same," Letty said. "I mean, I actually knew my mum and she was a selfish bitch. She only thought about herself and she would rather have been off with her new boyfriend than having anything to do with me, but...But Elena looks like she's actually making an effort. She here, she looks clean...If my mum did that, I would want to see her."

"That's the thing though," Dom was tracing his thumb over the back of her hand soothingly, maybe more for himself than for her. "I don't know if she is clean, or if she's just putting it on. She knew how to hide it really well. I didn't realize how bad she was until we had been seeing each other for a few months, and that was when I knew I had to get out of there, before I ended up like her." Letty nodded. She twisted herself around in the bed, putting her chin on his shoulder and pressing a kiss to his neck, one of her hands scratching lightly over the skin of his head.

"She might have changed," Letty murmured, her breaths warm against his jawline. "Children can do that to a persons life. I mean, look at you. You're completely different from when we were last together." Dom was silent for a long time, just staring blankly ahead before blinking and turning his head so that he was facing her, their lips only a breath away from each other. "You have my support," Letty repeated, one of her hands coming up to cup Dom's cheek. "No matter what your decision."

"I know," Dom whispered, before lowering his eyes as a flash of pain crossed them. She was surprised by the reaction, and leaned forward, resting her forehead against his shoulder. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry about what happened between us." Letty felt her stomach jolt as she realized that they were about to have a whole other serious conversation right now. "I was in this fucked up place, and I know that it's no excuse, but all I have for you is apologies. A hundred of them. And a promise that I'm not like that anymore." He shrugged his shoulder gently, nudging her head up so that he could meet her eyes, sincerity boring into her. "You have always been one of the most important people in my life, and I'm not risking letting you go again."

"We were young," Letty whispered to him. "We were young, and we just...We didn't know how to handle things. And I don't want your apologies—not anymore. I'm old enough now to know that even though it felt like the world was ending, it really wasn't," she let out a short laugh. "But I'll have you know...You push me away again? And you take the little girl out of my life? I'll rip your throat out." Dom cracked a smile, shaking his head before leaning in to capture her mouth. Letty was surprised by the ferocity in his kiss, and she slid her hand around from his cheek to the back of his neck, pulling him harder against her. Dom's grip moved, grabbing her hips and shifting her so that she was straddling him. Her back arched as his fingers slid under the thin shirt she was wearing, strumming light over her skin. She rubbed herself against him, feeling him hard in his briefs beneath her, and she let out a moan as he thrust himself upward, only separated by a few layers of fabric.

She had been truthful, when telling Mia that they hadn't had sex. But they had definitely been fooling around, and Letty's whole body felt like it was on fire whenever Dom touched her, remembering the way he felt inside her. Her panties were damp as his fingers dug into her ass, holding her down tightly against his hardened cock, rubbing her back and forth slowly, pointedly.

"Fuck," Letty moaned out as a shiver curled up her spine. Her hands braced themselves on his shoulders as he tilted her body forward, grinding up between her lower lips so that his cock was catching the sensitive nub between them. She was messily kissing him, breathing hard as she began to rub herself against him harder, chasing after the orgasm that was so close. Dom took over the kiss, forcing her to play with his tongue and respond as he rutted against her. She always tasted better than the last time, although the intoxication that took over his body was the same.

She made him feel like he was seventeen and in love for the first time all over again.

"Fuck...Letty..." Dom moaned as he felt his own orgasm beginning to build, heating burning at the base of his spine. It was actually a little bit ridiculous, the way they had been acting these past few months. There was no sex, but he still got off every time this happened, and a lot of those times had just been through dry humping alone.

Once again, making him feel seventeen.

Letty came first, her body shuddering and breathing his name into his ear as her teeth caught his lower lobe. Then she shuffled back on his thighs, reaching between them and into his briefs. Dom let out a long hiss as her soft hand came in contact with his skin, surrounding his cock and pulling at it slightly. He grunted as she began sliding her hand up and down, keeping her movements steady and swiping her thumb over the weeping head. It wasn't long before he followed after her, spilling over his stomach and her hand.

They got up and cleaned themselves down in the bathroom across the hall. Letty headed straight back to the bedroom afterwards, but Dom paused at the doorway.

"You okay?" Letty asked as she climbed into the double bed.

"Yeah, yeah," he gave her a small smile. "I'll be a sec."

"Okay," Letty replied, flicking off the light and snuggling under the blanket. Dom walked back down the hallway, toward Hadley's room. His little girl was still fast asleep as he stared down at her. Both of her hands were stretched above her head, fingers outstretched with her tiny rosebud mouth parted.

She was gorgeous, and she never failed to take Dom's breath away.

He twisted his head to look at the photos she had throughout the room, his eyes settling on the one of Elena and her, when she was first born. He exhaled heavily, his mind swamped and completely uncertain as to what he should do.

 _Okay, so I'm going to recommend a couple of songs again! Mainly because I love so many songs that I just have to share them, and also because I absolutely love, love, LOVE you guys giving me songs back. So keep suggesting them, I have a massive list on my computer of your songs and I make my way through all of them :) Anyway, the songs this time;_ Still Here _and_ Devil Within _by Digital Daggers. Fucking amazing, a little bit haunting—both of them. And then there's_ Couple of Kids _by Maggie Lindemann is sweet and has this underlying sort of sad tone to it? But it's gorgeous and I'm addicted. And then the last one is_ Peach Arizona _by drumaq. I've listen to this at least twice every time I get into my car. It's really chilled out and I'm just...God, I'm just in love._

 _Let me know what you guys think!_

 _I absolutely love hearing what you all think :) And for your review, there will be a preview xx_


	24. Chapter 24

_Not too many chapters left of this one! Which is very depressing :( Glad you guys are all enjoying it :)_

 _Please make sure you're taking a minute to leave a comment, just a few words, at the end. There's lots of you guys reading and following, and it means a lot for you to take a moment to say something :)_

"Mia, I've made up my mind," Dom gave his sister a sharp look. Mia clearly had a lot more to say, but she pursed her lips together and crossed her arms over her chest. "Can you look after Hadley, or do you need me to call Letty?"

"Does Letty knew what you're doing?" Mia snapped.

"I haven't spoken to her about it yet," Dom told her. "But she said she would support me no matter what, and I expect the same thing from you." Mia sighed and then reached over to pick Hadley up from the pram, giving her a soft smile before nodding at Dom. "Thanks, Mi," he said, leaning it to give her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'll see you soon, sweetheat," he gave Hadley a kiss as well, getting a wide grin from his daughter. "Bye bye."

"Bye, da!" She squealed out, waving her hands at him. Dom grinned before turning around and heading out of the house. His smile disappeared as soon as he got outside, walking briskly toward his car.

He had called Elena only half an hour before, on the number she had given him before she had left Hadley's birthday party the other day. Or, more accurately, had been escorted out by a furious looking Mia and Brian. He had only made up his decision today, almost a week after she had shown her face back in his home city. It only took him a couple of minutes to get to the outskirts of town where Elena was waiting for him, at a coffee shop that they had gone to a couple of times when they were together. He noticed her straight away, in a pair of jeans and a purple tank top, her hair brushed and braided over one shoulder and sunglasses perched on her nose. She looked good, he thought again to himself.

As good as she looked when they had first got together.

"Dom," Elena stood up and gave him a smile, reaching out to give him a hug. Dom raised an eyebrow at her, stiffly putting his arm around her before pulling back. "Sorry, I already ordered," she nodded down at the coffee and muffin on the table.

"No, that's okay," Dom replied. "I'm just going to go in and get something as well, okay?" She nodded again and he walked into the coffee shop. He grabbed himself a drink from the fridge and ordered it, but refrained from ordering something to eat. He wasn't planning on staying long enough to have lunch, and he definitely didn't want Elena to think that this was anything more than a brief chat. When he went back outside, Elena gave him a wide smile.

"I'm glad you called," she told him earnestly.

"I'm here to talk about Hadley, nothing else," he quickly clarified. Elena nodded. "I'm not letting you back into her life if you're still using. That's never going to happen."

"I'm clean, Dom," she swallowed hard and looked down. "I've been clean for just over a month now."

"A month?" Dom tried not to let his unease show on his face. "That's...A start, I guess."

"I went to rehab—my sister paid for it," Elena said. "I know that I've gone to rehab before, but this time it was different." The look she was giving Dom now was intense and he refused to pull his eyes away from her, wanting to see her expression every time a word came out of her mouth. "This time I was only thinking about Hadley. She's my daughter, and I've already let her down more than a mother ever should have."

"You went through rehab when you first found out you were pregnant," Dom reminded her, his fingers tensing around his drink bottle as he remembered back to what her sister had told him over the phone. "That didn't stop you from shooting up the afternoon you gave birth to her." Elena looked ashamed as she dropped her head, fiddling with a loose thread from her shirt.

"I wasn't thinking straight," she muttered. "I wasn't thinking about my daughter. I was just...I resented the fact I had to stop my life, the fact that I was pregnant—I resented _her_." Dom felt anger curling in the pit of his stomach, but refused to drag his eyes away from her. "But things have changed— _I've_ changed my outlook on everything."

"And what's your outlook on Hadley?" Dom bit out through gritted teeth.

"She's my daughter and I want to be a mother—a proper mother," Elena stated. Dom stared at her from across the table for a long time.

"You can come and see her," Dom finally said. "But only while I'm there, and you can't take her anywhere." Elena was nodding furiously. "And this is only a trial basis. You can't come over unannounced, you've got my phone number, you have to organize it with me first. And if I say I'm busy or that we can't meet today, you need to respect that." Elena's chin was still jerking up and down. Dom took in a deep breath and slumped back in his seat. "I've made a new life, Elena. One that you're not a part of. If you want to be a part of Hadley's life, it's going to be on my terms."

* * *

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it before I left to meet her," Dom told Letty. It was a few hours later, and Mia had said that she would look after Hadley for the night. Dom had gone home and tidied his place up, and then drove over to Letty's apartment building. She had planned to have a casual Saturday night at home, and her hair was in a messy ponytail, her face make up free, when she opened the door. Dom had let out this strange sigh of relief, feeling a hundred times lighter as soon as he saw her, and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her in for a hard kiss. She had laughed and kissed him back, asking him what was going on, but then she had seen his face and she had known something was wrong.

"Dom, I told you," Letty murmured, tracing his face with her finger, soothing him. "It's not place to judge you on decisions that you make in Hadley's life. She's _your_ daughter. You're the one who puts her before everything else."

"But I mean..." Dom sighed and dropped his head against the back of the couch. "Bringing Elena back into my life affects more than just Hadley." He looked at her pointedly. "You know what I mean."

"I do," Letty nodded slowly. "But this isn't about us. This is about what's best for Hadley. And having a chance to get to know her mother is something that is in her best interests." Dom interlaced his fingers with hers and gave them a squeeze. "A lot of people would've taken the easy way out, and told her to fuck off, rather than giving her a chance," she noted and he gave a one shouldered shrug. "You're a good man, Toretto." His face softened as he stared at her a small smile pulling up the corner of his lips.

"My mum used to say that...To my father," he murmured. Letty froze on his lap, wondering if she had crossed a line, but then he let go of her hand and reached up to take her chin between his index finger and thumb, pulling her in close to him. He rubbed his nose against hers gently, kissing each of her cheeks before his mouth found hers. The kiss became open mouthed in a short amount of time, and then his tongue slid into her mouth, tasting her. They kissed until their lips were swollen and Letty's cheeks were flushed red. "I don't think I ever stopped loving you, Leticia." Letty blinked at him before letting out a short laugh.

"You ever want me to return those words you'll never call me that again," she rolled her eyes at him.

"You once told me that people only call you Leticia when you're in a shit ton of trouble or shit is downright serious," Dom said. "We-ell, I guess this is one of those times where shit is downright serious." Letty shook her head and looked down. Half of her hair had fallen out of it's ponytail and was messed up around her face, hiding her expression. Dom didn't even realize he was holding his breath until she looked back up at him with a smile on her face.

"I love you too, Dom," she whispered, putting her hands on either side of his face and kissing him again. He slid his hands under her shirt, and he felt her body shuddering under his touch. His fingers found her bra strap and easily undone the hooks, moving forward so that his hands could touch the skin that the loose cups exposed. She let out a hiss as he palmed her breasts, and her mouth pulled away from his, dropping her forehead to rest on his shoulder as his thumbs scratched over her hardened nipples. "Oh, Dom..." Letty sighed, her body jerking under his touch.

"God, baby," Dom murmured, nosing the soft curve of her neck, biting down lightly against her soft skin and leaving a trail of wet kisses down to her collarbone. She pulled away from him and lifted up her arms, and Dom pulled her shirt and bra over her head in one swipe, tossing them to the ground and leaving her shirtless in front of him. "You're so fucking perfect," he groaned as he looked her over. His hands curved under her ass, holding it tightly as he leaned down to kiss one of her breasts, laving his tongue over one nipple and then moving to the other, pulling at it between his teeth. She moaned and rolled her hips forward, feeling his cock rubbing at her through her pyjama shorts. Her lower lips were swollen and as she rubbed against him, she felt them part, so that his arousal through his jeans was thrusting against her clit, despite the fabric between them.

"Oh... _Fuck_ ," she grunted, her skin covering in goose bumps.

"I need you, Letty," Dom told her. Letty nodded, her expression glazed and her eyes hooded. "Do you have, uh..." Dom looked a little embarrassed. "Do you have anything?" Letty still didn't look as though she was fully comprehending what he was saying but she let out a short laugh.

"Oh yeah," she reached to the side, to the table next to the couch. "Gisele has these all over the house," she shook her head. "Her and Han get a little carried away sometimes."

"They're not going to come home, right?" Dom only thought about that now. They were about to have sex in the middle of the lounge of her apartment—the apartment that she shared with Gisele.

"Nope," Letty gave a reassuring shake of her head. "She's at his place for the night."

"Oh right," Dom nodded as he turned the condom over in his hands. "That's, uh, that's good."

"Yeah," Letty pursed her lips. The moment of talking had broken the spell they were under and they looked at each other uncomfortably before letting out short laughs and looking away. Then Dom reached for her again, putting the un-opened condom down on the couch next to them as they kissed. They slipped back into the familiar rhythm of grind and roll, tug and bite, lick and suck. They rid each other of the rest of their clothes, and then Letty fumbled to find the condom without their lips parting. She sheathed him and he let out a groan as her fingers fluttered over his throbbing cock. His hands skimmed up her sides as she lifted herself onto his knees, and then sunk back down again, this time taking him into her wet heat.

 _Okay, okay, sooooo the songs this time aaaare ;_ Reforget _and_ The Other _, by Lauv. I found these about two weeks ago and I've just been listening to them non-stop ever since. I'm completely head over fucking heels for them. Then there's_ Soldier _by Samantha Jade,_ Don't Let Me Down _by Chainsmokers and_ Lover, Fighter _by SVRCINA. Those last three have all been on repeat every time I get in my car, completely in love with them._

 _Let me know what songs you guys are addicted to at the moment! Please, please, please! I love your suggestions._

 _Aaaaand, please let me know what you guys thought of the chapter :) Your reviews make me ridiculously happy and they're what keep me writing. And for every signed in review I'll send out a preview xx_


	25. Chapter 25

_Hey guys! There's a couple of things that I need to say and they're kinda serious/sad/angry/whatever so I thought I'd get them over with at the beginning, and then my authors note at the end would be a happy one :) So if you guys wanted to skip forward, totally understandable._

 _The first thing; there's been some real negative reviews going around. Everyone gets them, it's going to happen. It totally sucks, but it's unavoidable. But some people have been going out of their way to leave insanely long, detailed descriptions as to what they hate about stories and, come on, that's just unnecessary. I try to just delete flames and not think about them, they suck and sometimes I get a little pissed off and discouraged, but I try to ignore them. Sometimes it really gets to writers though, and they get mental blocks and choose to stop writing. Can we please just be nice? Constructive criticism—absolutely, but there's a difference. Remember we write for free, and for fun! Come on, everyone!_

 _The second thing; I try not to mention world events on here or even on my social media account for several reasons. But I did want to say I was so upset when I heard about Christina Grimmie dying! I have listened to her on YouTube for years, and I was actually listening to her the morning that I found out she was shot. It's so horrible. I think what freaks me out is I've just listened to her for so long, and she's the same age as me, and it just so scary...It's just not okay :(_

 _Only three chapters left, guys!_

"So she's over there right now?" Mia asked, the anger on her face clear.

"Calm down, Mi," Letty gave her a half smile. "She's Hadley's mother. You must've known that she was going to reappear in their lives."

"Uh, in all honesty? No," Mia muttered. "She was always hare-brained, and it was a miracle that she managed to stay clean for the time she was pregnant with Hadley. Probably the only good thing that she had ever done with her life. I was hoping that I would never see her face again." Letty swallowed hard, forcing back what she _really_ wanted to say.

That she agreed.

That she didn't want Elena around.

But she said she would support Dom, and that meant even when she was talking to someone other than him.

"She doesn't deserve to have anything to do with Dom _or_ Hadley," Mia grumbled as she turned toward the sink, scrubbing at the dishes inside. Letty followed after Mia, picking up up a tea-towel and waiting for Mia to put the clean dishes on the drying rack.

"I guess life's all about second chances, right?" She shrugged. Mia rolled her eyes and snorted, looking over at her best friend.

"Since when are you so PC?" She mocked lightly.

"Well, I'll have you know that I actually grew up," Letty shot back with a jab of her elbow to Mia's side. "I'm not all about running my mouth and getting myself in shit when like when I was eighteen." Mia laughed and turned back to the sink. "Anyway, life is all about second chances, right? If I didn't get a second chance, I wouldn't be with Dom right now, and honestly I..." Letty almost balked just at the thought. "Honestly I couldn't imagine a life without Dom and Hadley now." Mia was quiet as she cleaned down a glass oven tray that she had cooked dinner in the night before.

"You and Dom were always going to find a way to each other," Mia murmured after a few minutes. "Even when I was younger I always knew you guys would. You're meant to be together." Letty narrowed her eyes and then let out a laugh.

"Shit, Mi," she grinned as she picked up another plate and began drying it down. "Someone's become a hopeless romantic since finding a certain curly haired blonde."

* * *

Dom shifted on the couch, watching Elena and Hadley. He thanked God for the hundredth time that Hadley was such a happy toddler and took well to strangers, because there was no way that she knew who Elena was. She hadn't been happy when Elena had walked in, because it was clear she was expecting Letty or Mia or one of the boys when she got excited at hearing a car outside. But she settled down after a few minutes, and the two of them had been sitting on the floor on one of Hadley's play mats for the past hour or so.

Things had been a little stiff to begin with, but Elena had picked up one of Hadley's favorite teddy bears and danced it around in front of the little girl, and Hadley's eyes had brightened and she grinned, watching it bounce around. Dom had seen Elena's shoulders relax and he was glad. This wasn't going to work if Elena was tense and second guessing every movement she made, it would just confuse Hadley. She wasn't used to people being uncomfortable around her.

As it got closer to two, Dom noticed Hadley's eyes starting to droop and the little girl giving out yawns.

"I think it's probably time for her nap," he said quietly. Elena looked over at him.

"Does she do that a lot?"

"What? Sleep?" Dom held back the snort of disbelief at her words, although the look on his face was clear enough for Elena to see. He pursed his lips and refocused his eyes on his daughter. "Yeah. Not as much as when she was a baby, although at least now she sleeps through the night." Hadley let out another yawn, her eyes almost closed now. "Um," he glanced back at Elena. "Did you want to go and make us some coffee or something? I'll put her to bed."

"Can I come?" Elena asked eagerly. Dom stared at her before nodding slowly. Elena picked Hadley up, but she straight away started grizzling, tugging away from her and reaching out for Dom.

"Sorry," Dom gave her a tight smile, actually feeling a small tug of sympathy for her for once when he saw the crest-fallen expression on her face. "When she's tired she just wants people that she's comfortable with." Elena nodded jerkily as Dom took her from Elena's arms. Hadley immediately settled, resting her head against her fathers chest and gripping his shirt in one of her tiny but surprisingly strong fists. Dom automatically hummed under his breath, soothing her as they walked up the steps, toward Hadley's room. He checked her diaper, and then laid her down to change her onesie, given the one she was wearing now was a little damp from drool and her drink that she had spilt on herself. As he put her into her cot, Elena walked slowly around the room looking at everything.

"I can't believe you even have these photos," she murmured as she looked at the two photos of herself.

"Mia took the first one, and your sister gave me the second one," Dom told her, keeping his voice hushed as Hadley settled down. Elena nodded and then looked back at the photos on the walls. There was one of Hadley, Dom and Letty, the three of them all sitting in the backyard of Mia and Brian's, and Hadley was cradled in Letty's arms with Dom's arm thrown around her shoulder. He wasn't really smiling, but he was content.

"So this is your new girl, is it?" Elena's voice had a flat tone to it now and Dom sighed. It's not like he didn't know this conversation was coming, it was bound to, but it didn't mean he was looking forward to it.

"I think we should move back out to lounge," he said, leading the way out of the room. Elena followed after him, and he took them down the stairs, through the lounge and into the kitchen.

"Is that the girl you were with the other day?" Elena asked.

"Letty," Dom nodded.

"Letty...Oh, right," Elena's lips quirked upward slightly. "Letty."

"The same one," Dom confirmed as he saw realization in Elena's eyes. He had told Elena about her, on one of the bad trips they had gone on, and Elena hadn't been surprised that there was someone serious before her. Dom had never been with her because he wanted a relationship, he just wanted a distraction.

"So she's back then, huh?" Elena tilted her head to the side as Dom pulled two mugs out of the cupboard and flicked on the coffee maker. "Is she back for good?"

"I think so," Dom said. He thought about it for a moment before correcting himself. "I _hope_ so."

"And what? She's Hadley's step mum?" Elena sounded bitter. "You guys just going to play happy families and I'm going to be on the outside, looking in?" Dom frowned at her words and turned around to face her.

"I don't know, Elena," he told her, his voice firm. "I don't even know if you're still going to be here in six months—"

" _I am_ ," Elena interrupted.

"Well, I don't know that, Elena," Dom snapped. "I hope that you are, but I don't know that."

"I'm clean, Dom," Elena insisted. "And I'm going to stay that way."

"Good," Dom told her seriously. "Because the second I even _think_ that you're using again, you're out. You're gone. I'm not having someone like that around my daughter."

"You seem to forget that she's _our_ daughter," she reminded him.

"No, I didn't forget," Dom narrowed his eyes at her. "She might be your blood, but you're not her mother. Not yet. That's something that you have to earn, being in her life, playing that part."

"Oh, and you suppose that _Letty_ might want that role?" Elena was getting more and more annoyed by the second. Dom knew this was a bad idea, continuing this conversation when it was such a touchy subject for both of them, and they didn't have Hadley here to force them to play nice with each other.

"Me and Letty are none of your business," Dom bit out.

"If she's going to be playing 'mummy' in Hadley's life, that _is_ my business," Elena fired back.

"She has never tried to replace you," Dom growled, taking a step toward Elena, his eyes fiery as he glared down at her. "When you came around here, and you wanted to be a part of Hadley's life, she didn't tell me to say no. She didn't say not to give you a chance. In fact, she's part of the reason that I told you to come here." Elena blinked, at a loss for words. "Letty is a better person that you and me combined, and if you have something to say against her, then you can leave, and don't expect to be invited back. Because she's been nothing but fucking amazing to me and Hadley." Elena swallowed visibly and they just stared at each other until the coffee maker suddenly beeped, indicating that it was ready.

"I think that maybe I should go," Elena said quietly, her voice strained. Dom just stared back at her, not bothering to say anything to stop her. "Thanks for letting me come by." He continued to watch her with a steely gaze until she was backing out of the room, and walking toward the front door.

He heard the door shut a couple of seconds later and Dom took in a deep breath, scratching a hand over his bald head and dropping his head to look down at the ground. He really wasn't sure if what he had done was the right thing, letting Elena back into his and Hadley's lives. But then he had to think to himself that this was only the start, and things were always going to be rocky when they were trying to find their rhythm.

Dom walked over to the table to pick up his phone, and speed dialed the first number. Letty picked up on the second ring and her voice instantly calmed him down.

"Hey, Dom. Are you okay? Is Hadley okay?" She immediately asked.

"Hey, babe," Dom breathed, leaning back against the table, already relaxing as he heard her voice.

 _Happier authors note! I promise! A lot of people keep recommending_ War of Hearts _by Ruelle in the reviews. I do love Ruelle, and I love that song, although it's not my favourite by her. Thought that I would just recommend it though, since obviously lots of you guys love it! Other ones that I'm in love with at the moment_ Ritual _by Adam Jensen and_ Rust _by Stalgia. Also a cover of Justin Bieber's_ Sorry _by Our Last Night._

 _Let me know what you guys are listening to! I want to know!_

 _Also, there's been a few more questions about my updating schedule. It's on my profile, people. Check it out._

 _Leave a review, make my day,_


	26. Chapter 26

_One chapter left after this!_

"They're looking at me like I'm a lab rat," Elena muttered as she looked across at Dom, her lips pulled in a tight line, before lifting her eyes to glance over his shoulder. "Just waiting for me to fuck up."

"Okay, one, don't swear. Or at least, don't let Mia hear you swear," Dom replied quietly. "She doesn't need any any more reason not to like you. And second, they're my family, and they're looking out for me and Hadley. So you're just going to need to accept that." Elena's eyes were narrow as she looked back down at Hadley, who was gnawing on a rubber teething ring and clenching her fingers around another toy beside her leg. "I'm going to go and get something to drink. You thirsty?"

"I'm fine," Elena said tightly. She watched him go, her eyes drifting toward the doorway between the lounge and the kitchen to where Mia, Brian and Letty were. Mia was watching through the doorway like a hawk, arms crossed over her chest and she was tapping her foot snappily on the wooden floor. Elena exhaled heavily and looked back at her daughter, the tension of being watched resting heavily on her shoulders and making her more nervous that she usually was when she was at Dom's place with him and Hadley.

"I think maybe this is a bad idea, you guys being here," Dom said as he walked into the kitchen, purposefully kicking the door shut behind him to give them a little privacy.

"Why? I thought that the whole family was friggin' welcome, given _she's_ here," Mia growled, jerking her thumb in the direction of the lounge.

"Mia," Dom gave her a warning look. "Chill."

"Whatever," Mia grunted. Brian put his arm around her and pulled her into his side. "So what, she get's to show up whenever the hell she wants?"

"She text me and asked if she could come over," Dom said as he turned on the coffee machine. "And then you guys just showed up without any warning, so really, it's you two who just showed up 'whenever you want'."

"Letty was here already," Mia pointed out.

"And I thought that it would be a good idea for Letty to officially meet Elena. You know, _without_ an audience," Dom raised his eyebrows. Mia sighed and grumbled under her breath, but Brian gave her arm a pointed squeeze to quiet her down. Letty swallowed as she looked over at the doorway.

"I think I'm actually just gonna go," she said, playing with a curl of her hair to distract herself.

"What? Why?" Dom frowned over at her.

"Well, technically, her and I have met now," she winced as she thought back over half an hour ago, to when she had opened the door to Elena and the girl had practically burned a hole in her with a glare. "And it's just going to make things worse, it's gotta feel like we're ganging up on her, all of us being here. It's _definitely_ not going to help that _I'm_ one of those people."

"I think maybe we should all go," Brian suggested. Mia looked like she was going to argue but she saw the relief on her brothers face and nodded reluctantly.

"Fine," she muttered. "But you're still coming over for dinner tonight, right?"

"Yup, we'll see you there," Dom answered. The coffee machine beeped, indicating it was finished, and he filled a cup.

"See ya then, man," Brian told him, leaning in to slap palms with him before he and Mia were walking out of the kitchen, using the backdoor to leave rather than going through the lounge where Hadley and Elena were. Dom turned back to Letty, who had her hands shoved into the pockets of her jeans.

"You know you can stay, right?" Dom told her, sliding an arm around her waist.

"I think we should ease into the whole me-you-Hadley-Elena square thing that's going on here," Letty made a face. "We've met, I think that's enough for now."

"You sure?" Dom asked.

"Yeah. I mean, it's already pretty tense in there, and Hadley's sensitive. She'll pick up that something is wrong and that's not fair on her," Letty said. Dom stared at her, not saying anything, a small smile on his face. "What?" She arched an eyebrow at him.

"You're amazing," he told her earnestly, lifting his finger to trace it along the side of her face. He was leaning in for a kiss when the kitchen door swung open.

"Hey, Dom, I think that—Oh," Elena cut off. Letty and Dom stepped apart, although Dom tightened his hand around her waist to stop her from stepping too far away. "I thought everyone left," she said bluntly. Letty felt her body bristle at the cold tone in the girls voice, but she bit her tongue, because a little bitch fight _wasn't_ what was in the best interest of everyone right now.

"No," Dom shook his head. "Letty's staying around." Letty's eyes widened but she forced herself not to look over at Dom, and kept her gaze on Elena.

"Right," Elena pursed her lips, her eyes never leaving Letty's. Never one to back down, Letty stared right back. There was a tense silence that filled the room, that was only interrupted by Dom clearing his throat.

"Okay, I think that we need to get a couple of things cleared up here," he began. "Elena, you're in this house as a guest," his voice was firm but not confrontational. Letty recognized it as his 'daddy' tone, and if this wasn't such a serious moment, she would have let out a laugh that they were being schooled in the same way his daughter was. "You might be Hadley's mother, but she doesn't know that." Letty actually saw Elena flinch at that, and for a moment, she felt sorry for her. "If you want to be a part of Hadley's life and get to know her, then you need to accept Letty is also a part of it, and she's a part of mine." Elena didn't say anything, her steely gaze still on Letty. Finally, Letty was the one to shake her head and break the staring match.

"Listen, girl," she stated. "You fucked up." Elena's expression became even more clouded by Letty held up her hand to stop her from interrupting her. "You fucked up big, and from the sounds of it, your life is just a general fuck up." Dom was actually looking a little worried at were Letty was going with this, and Elena's fists were clenching at her side, as though the girl was getting ready for a fight. Dom definitely hoped that wouldn't happen, because Letty could kick her ass without a second thought, and that would put a little bit of a damper on things. "But I totally get the whole second chances thing, and I'm not going to be the one to stand in the way of this." Letty took in a deep breath and looked over at Dom. "I think I _am_ going to head off now," she said.

"Okay," he nodded. Letty picked up her keys from the bench, but paused beside Elena before walking out of the room.

"You screw this up again and hurt my man or that little girl, I will personally shred your face, okay?" Letty stated, her tone peppy and a fake smile plastered on her face. "Bye, Dom," she flounced out of the room. Dom couldn't hold back a smirk and Elena turned her wide eyes back to him, her mouth open. He just shrugged in response.

* * *

"So she threatened her?" Brian let out a laugh as he looked over at Dom, taking another swig of his beer.

"Yeah," Dom grinned. "It was kind of hot."

"You don't find it hot when _Mia's_ the one doing the threatening," Brian pointed out. Dom gave him a disgusted look.

"That's because she's _my sister_ ," he stated. "Plus, Letty didn't go in there with a plan to threaten. Mia always approaches her with this look in her eye as though she's planning to pull out every single one of her teeth." Brian lauhged and shrugged.

"She's protective."

"I know," Dom smiled. "She's a Toretto."

"Can you imagine when Hadley gets older?"

"With Letty and Mia as her female role models?" Dom almost looked petrified at the thought. "She's going to be one hellish teenager."

"And Elena," Brian added. Dom pursed his lips.

"If everything keeps going okay," he said quietly.

"You think she might let you down again?" Brian asked softly, looking over to where Mia and Letty were standing in the lounge, Hadley in Letty's arms. The two men were quiet as Dom mulled over the question, exhaling heavily through his nose.

"I honestly don't know," Dom finally answered. "And I hate that. Usually I have a good sense about people, but Elena's all...I just—I don't know." Brian nodded. "But I have to give her a chance, right? She's Hadley's mum. As much as a wish it was someone else..." _Three guesses as to who he was referring to_ , Brian thought to himself. "Elena is, and I need to give her a chance. For Hadley."

"You know we've all got your back, right? If something goes wrong, we're all there for you," Brian said.

"I know, man," Dom gave him a smile and then tilted his beer bottle toward him. The blonde tapped the neck of his bottle against his and then they looked up when they saw the girls approaching them. "Hey, babe," he grinned as Letty sat down on his knee, balancing Hadley on her own knee so that the three of them were all crowded onto the arm chair. Dom put down his beer and held out his hand to Hadley, who gripped his thumb and looked up at him adoringly. "You think it's time to head home to bed?"

"Story time?" Hadley's face perked up. The adults couldn't help but laugh at the excited expression on her face.

"Yeah, darling," Letty grinned and dropped a kiss to her forehead. "Story time." They said goodbye to Brian and Mia, strapped Hadley into her seat in the back of Dom's car and drove back to his place. Dom's house was only a few minutes away, but he purposefully drove around the block a couple of times, and by the time they pulled into his driveway, Hadley was fast asleep in her seat. "You weren't down for story time?" Letty joked quietly as he looked over at her.

"Let," he began, his voice low and serious. "There is no way that I can deal with story time right now. I have been turned on ever since you threatened Elena over my daughter this afternoon."

"I really don't know if that's a healthy reaction," she smirked.

"I don't care if it is or not," Dom grinned at her. "I'm going with it."

"I can live with that."

 _I'm gonna take a moment here to completely fangirl over_ Harry Potter _. Me and my hubby had a bit of a marathon over the weekend and it just brought back my complete love for it all over again. The books, the movies—_ Harry Potter _is life! Haha. My favourite line in the whole series—which totally isn't meant to be funny and shit but makes me piss myself every time it comes on because I was high as hell when I first watched the movie is '_ oh no, the invisibility booster must be faulty! _'. Once again, not funny, but holy shit, I just can't stop myself from melting own whenever I hear that line. My fave characters are kind of completely opposite personalities. Hahaha. It's Ron and Bellatrix. Completely love them both. Closely followed by Hagrid, Snape and McGonagall._

 _Tell me your favourite_ HP _character! I'm all about the fangirling :) xx_

 _Let me know what you thought of the chapter. Leave a review, they make me oh so happy :)_


	27. Chapter 27

_This is the last chapter. Oh my god. I want to say a massive thank you for all your comments and PM's. You've all been amazing. Now, this chapter doesn't quite go along the lines that a lot of you wanted, so I'm sorry, but I had a definite plan with how I wanted this to go._

"Hey, doll," Gisele sung out as she came sweeping into the bar, her eyes glazed from the drinks she had already had. "Oh my god! Can you believe it?! It's been a year since we took this job!" Letty raised her eyebrows and fought to suppress her laugh as she saw that Gisele's lipstick was a little smudged and her hair wasn't as perfect as it usually was, her long hair a little matted at the side. She looked over at Dom and Mia, who had both noticed as well, and had amused expressions on their faces. Han followed after Gisele a few minutes later, and Letty couldn't hold back her snort.

"And there's the rest of the lipstick," she said out of the corner of her mouth to the Toretto siblings.

"Another round!" Brian announced as he came over, shot glasses all hooked in his fingers, putting them down on the table in front of them.

"Tequila?" Letty groaned, turning up her nose as she saw the choice of drink he had brought over. "That is not okay, O'Conner!"

"Why's that?" Dom smirked knowingly at her. "I thought you loved tequila."

"Ooh yes," Mia wiggled her eyebrows. "Do you remember Riley's birthday party?" Letty's eyes widened as she realized what story was coming next. "Letty got so hammered on these tequila shots that Dom and Vince were feeding her, that she ended up doing a re-enactment of _Thriller_ on the top of the kitchen table!"

"As in Michael Jackson _Thriller_?" Han snorted.

"As in Michael Jackson _Thriller_ ," Dom confirmed with a grin. "Down to every last dance move." Letty groaned as she covered her face.

"It was not my proudest moment," she muttered. Gisele smirked.

"Well," she piped up as she slid into the opposite side of the booth. "The night after we finished our final exams, she got completely plastered. Actually, come to think of it, it might have been tequila then as well..."

"On with the story!" Mia demanded, slapping her palm down on the table top excitedly.

"We went out to this bar with a couple of the girls in our class, and she sang and danced to _Mickey_."

"Mickey?" Dom raised an eyebrow. Gisele let out a squeak as she bounced around in her seat.

"Oh Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind—Hey, Mickey!" Gisele sung out. Dom let out a laugh and shook his head.

"You're pretty damn classy when you're drunk," Dom grinned as he nudged Letty in the side.

"Yeah, well, last time I checked, this celebration tonight was for me and Gisele, not to just sit around and tell your favorite 'When Letty Had Tequila' stories," she said grumpily. "So this is the only tequila shot I'm going to have tonight, and if any of you bring this shit near me again, I will throat punch you." Brian snorted as he lifted up his shot glass. Everyone lifted their glasses to clink against one anothers before throwing it back.

As the night went on, the six of them got drunker and drunker, Letty pointedly drinking pretty much everything else _except_ tequila. Even Dom was getting drunk, which was unusual for him, but he wasn't due back home until tomorrow morning, because he had an overnight babysitter for Hadley.

Elena.

It wasn't the first time over the past few months that she had looked after Hadley alone, but it was the first time she had her overnight.

To say that Dom was worried as hell and wanted to ring her every couple of minutes would be lying, which is why he was getting drunk, to distract himself.

And he really didn't have anything to worry about, because he had asked Jesse to put nanny cameras through the house and keep an on eye on everything. The kid was sending him hourly updates, and everything sounded as though it was going fine.

"You're thinking about Hadley, aren't you?" Letty's whisper in his ear suddenly pulled him back to the present.

"Noooo," Dom hummed out unconvincingly.

"Liar," Letty smirked and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Elena's got this," she assured him.

"I know, I know!" His phone vibrated in his pocket and he snatched it out and looked down at the latest update from Jesse. This time there was a picture attached, a fuzzy photo of Hadley in her cot, fast asleep. Dom text him back and asked him if he knew where Elena was. His reply came back in another picture, of Elena sleeping on the couch with a blanket pulled over her.

"See?" Letty snatched his phone off him. "You need to chill out, and enjoy the evening out with your girlfriend."

"My girlfriend, aye?" Dom smirked over at her."You make us sound like teenagers."

"My partner, my lover—whatever," Letty smirked at him, pressing another kiss to his Dom, this one a little closer to his jaw. She left a few more butterfly kisses along his jaw, edging down the column of his neck. He wondered if he knew what effect she was having on him, but then she surreptitiously bit down against his skin and he sucked in a sharp breath.

She knew exactly what she was doing to him.

She always did.

"You want to get out of here?" She whispered, her breath hot against his ear.

"Sounds perfect," Dom grinned back, reaching under the table and squeezing her bare thigh.

"And I don't mean get out of here to go and see Hadley, as much as I love her," she continued pointedly. Dom raised his eyebrows in innocence.

"I knew that!"

* * *

"Elena!" Dom called as he walked into his house, Letty close behind him. She shut the door behind them as he continued through the lounge in search of Elena and Hadley. They weren't in the house, but there was a happy cry out the back door and they went out to the backyard. Dom pushed open the back door and saw the two on the porch, Elena sitting on one of the deck chairs with a mug of coffee in her hand while Hadley walked up and down deck, happy to be out in the morning sun. She loved being out on the porch had and Dom had kiddy-proofed it, so that she couldn't tumble down the steps or slip through the gaps in the railing.

"Oh, hey, Dom," Elena grinned widely at him before looking over his shoulder. "Letty," her smile faded slightly and she gave a short nod.

"Elena," Letty nodded back before her eyes fixed on Hadley, who was wobbly standing on the deck on her pudgy legs. "Hey, darling girl," she cooed out and Hadley's eyes widened happily as she saw the Latina.

"Letty!" She squealed out, clapping her hands together excitedly and breaking out into a flat footed run across the deck toward Letty. She was stringing sentences together now, simple ones, and when she cried out her favorite peoples names, she accompanied it with a toothy grin. "Letty!" Letty grinned down at the girl, crouching down to catch Hadley and then swinging her up to nuzzle her nose against hers.

"Did you have a fun night with Elena?" Letty asked, her tone dropping into a loving and almost baby voice, that only happened when she was around Hadley. "Did you have a fun night with your mummy?" Dom gave Elena a side glance and saw the tense expression on her face relax as she watched the two.

"I haven't given her breakfast yet," Elena said.

"I can do that," Letty nodded over at Hadley's parents. "You guys, uh..." she looked between the two and then shrugged. "Do your thing," she turned her head back to Hadley. "And we're going to get you food," she hummed out to Hadley. "Aye, darling? We'll get you food." She carried Hadley back into the kitchen, putting her into her high chair and handing her a spoon to play with while she moved around the room. Hadley banged the spoon down against the tray of the high chair, clapping her hands together and letting out happy shouts. "Won't be long, babes."

She poured one of the porridge sachets into a bowl and added water, putting it into the microwave and turned it on for a few minutes. As she waited for the food to cook, she looked out the window at the back porch, where Dom and Elena were standing.

Things had gotten better between them over the past few months. At least, things had gotten better between Dom and Elena, and also Elena and Hadley. Elena and everyone else, things were still frosty. Letty didn't want people to think that their friends had to choose between her or Elena, that to be loyal to her then they had to dislike Elena. But it wasn't just that; none of them had forgotten what Elena was like before she had come back, or the fact that she had abandoned Hadley when she was first born.

"Letty! Food time!" Hadley cried out from behind her.

"I know, I know," Letty grinned over at her. "Won't be long." Her eyes briefly looked back out the window, where Dom and Elena were still talking, before the microwave let out a beep, indicating the porridge had finished. She pulled it out and stirred it, tasting the food to make sure the temperature wasn't too hot before taking it over to Hadley. "Okay, babe," she spread her legs in front of Hadley, lowering her body so that she was face to face with the toddler. "Let's do this."

"Food time," Hadley agreed solemnly.

"Do you promise not to spit it out all over me?" Letty raised an eyebrow. Hadley stared at her for long moment and then her face broke out in a grin and she pummeled her fists down on the tray again. Letty took the spoon from Hadley and filled it, moving it toward Hadley's mouth and waiting for the little girl to open her rosebud mouth. She accepted the mouthful, pursing her mouth as she swished it around. It only took a couple of seconds, before she was smushing it back out through her couple of front teeth. "And so it begins..."

"I swear she only does it when you're feeding her," Dom commented from the doorway.

"That's bull and you know it," Letty muttered as she wiped down the excess porridge from the girls mouth with the spoon, offering it back to her. "She does it with everyone, she just does it more with me." Dom laughed and walked over to them, Elena following behind her, face turned downward. "Um, thanks for looking after her last night, so that Dom could come out with us."

"That's fine," Elena said, looking over at her. Letty gave a polite smile before turning back to Hadley. "Well, I should be off." Letty glanced over at her, and to Dom, who was just watching Letty feed Hadley.

"We haven't had breakfast yet," Letty began. "Me and Dom picked up some groceries on the way over. Did you want to stay and eat with us—once I've finished feeding Hadley."

"Oh, no, that's fine," Elena said. "I was just going to pick something up on the way home." Letty turned her head to Elena and tilted her head to the side.

"Come on, Elena," Letty gave her a half smile. "Stay. Anyway," she gave a wry smile to Dom. "It's useless to argue with me. Just ask him." Elena glanced at Dom who just shrugged and nodded with a short smile.

"It's true," he admitted. "You won't win." Elena gnawed down on her lower lip, her pretty face conflicted.

"Okay," she nodded.

"Do you want to finish up here? We can go and get the groceries," Letty offered up the porridge and the spoon. Hadley didn't seem to mind who was going to feed her, her eyes only glued to the bowl. Elena took in gratefully, giving Letty a small but probably the first genuine smile she had ever given Letty. Dom and Letty walked outside to the car, and she leaned into the boot to pick up one of the bags. As she turned back around, Dom was standing there, blocking her from moving back into the house. "What are you doing?"

"You're fucking incredible, you know that?" He murmured, putting a hand on her hip and pulling her in close to him.

"Yeah, I'm pretty aware of that," Letty replied cockily. Dom just rolled his eyes, his fingers curling at her hip and then sliding down to give her ass a squeeze.

"I love you, Letty," he murmured.

"And I love you, Dom," she reached up to kiss him firmly on the mouth. "Oh, and you realize you owe the swear jar, right?"

 _Leave me one last review :) Let me know what you think._

 _And once again, a big thank you!_


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